Base is part of a plan to reintroduce ferrets here
The black-footed ferret, which in the mid-1980s was only 18 animals away from extinction, may be reintroduced to the prairie of Fort Carson, the first such effort in Colorado east of the Continental Divide.
The Army announced Wednesday it has teamed up with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to try to establish a ferret population at the southern end of the post, in Pueblo County. It would be the third reintroduction in Colorado, the other two on the Western Slope.
The small ferrets, North America's most endangered mammal, once roamed the Great Plains, but habitat destruction, widespread poisoning of prairie dogs by farmers and the introduction of non-native disease such as the plague decimated their numbers. They were extirpated from Colorado by 1946 and have been considered endangered since 1967.
The 2,370-acre Fort Carson site was chosen because there is a large colony of prairie dogs - the ferret's primary food - there. Also, because the site is on federal land, it would be protected from intrusion or development, said Della Garelle, director of conservation and animal health at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
The zoo has been breeding ferrets since 1990, and it will provide the animals for the Fort Carson project. Officials hope to release them in the fall. It hasn't been determined how many will be released.Success is not assured. Such a release would be the first in an area where the plague, carried by fleas, is known to exist, and officials plan to vaccinate as many ferrets and prairie dogs for the disease as possible.
"They are still endangered. They are safe in captivity, but the problem is this plague," Garelle said.
If successful, the release could be a blueprint for other locations on the Front Range and eastern plains.
The Fish and Wildlife Service must approve the project. Calls to the agency were not returned Wednesday afternoon.
Other efforts at ferret reintroduction are in Coyote Basin, near the Colorado-Utah border west of Rangely, and near Dinosaur National Monument. According to the Colorado Division of Wildlife, 126 ferrets have been released at the two sites since 2001.
There are about 1,000 known ferrets throughout the Western and plains states.
-
CONTACT THE WRITER: 476-1605 or srappold@gazette.com
OPEN HOUSE
Info for black-footed ferret reintroduction:
Fort Carson, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, will hold an open house 6 p.m. Wednesday on the proposed reintroduction. The open house will be at the Lodge at Moose Lake at the zoo, 4250 Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Road.
Information on the project will be available, and one of the zoo's ferrets will also be on-hand.
