Fare thee well

 

Summer’s come to an end. In four months, I embarked on my first road trip, moved to another state, traded an apartment for a trailer with roommates, turned 32, and spent many, many days being outside – outside working, outside playing. I lived on well under $20 a day, ate more beef in one season than I’ve probably consumed in my life up till this point, learned that trailer living in a hail storm is a hoot, discovered that wildlife majors can’t bowl, went to a $2 movie, tried (and loved!) kuchen, played weekly volleyball, witnessed a bi-annual blasting at Crazy Horse, attempted to catch leopard frogs with nothing but my bare hands and lightning reflexes (yeah, right), became a huge fan of moose meat, startled a moose on a hike, introduced goat curry to a rancher, chased a porcupine, excavated a bison skull, and uncovered a fondness for rodents.

My final nod to South Dakota: Demolition Derby in Rapid City! Then, it’s the 1700+ mile journey back to the northeast.

Masked Bandit

 

 

From the safety of its burrow, a ferret is as curious about you as you are about it

Spotlighting

 

Emerald eyeshine means there's a ferret in the house

He danced in the rain, so we called him Fred…

 

Our plots are teeming with ferrets. A family of four on Plot #6 inhabits the burrows between traps #21 and #22, which might explain why we haven’t caught the two specific PDs we are targeting in that area.

When I first saw a black-footed ferret, I was amazed at its size… tiny! Also agile, sinuously long and a periscope-like neck as it peeks from the burrow. Ferrets don’t outsize or outweigh prairie dogs, so to kill PDs, they rely on the element of surprise and strike while PDs are asleep during the night. Ferrets have elongated bodies, ideal for living in narrow burrows and they use their bodies to pin PDs to burrow walls during an attack. They kill with a single bite to the neck, which slowly suffocates the PD.

Because PDs can be rather hefty, a black-footed ferret needs to be a highly skilled predator. And they are not always successful – we have caught many PDs with what appear to be ferret-inflicted wounds.

Black-footed ferrets are entirely dependent on PDs to survive – in addition to food, ferrets also live in PD burrows which provide warmth and protection from other predators (badgers and raptors will kill and eat ferrets, while coyotes will kill and bury them – ferrets are not a source of food for coyotes, rather a competitor that coyotes will eliminate opportunistically).

As nocturnal animals, tracking ferrets involves driving around with a spotlight, and keeping a keen eye out for green eyeshine. Ferrets are inherently curious and will often check you out – allowing for some surprising close-ups.