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I hope that the black footed ferret reintroduction efforts are successful (https://www.fws.gov/project/black-footed-ferret-recovery https://www.fws.gov/project/
by __MatrixMan__ 1y ago
I hope that the black footed ferret reintroduction efforts are successful (https://www.fws.gov/project/black-footed-ferret-recovery https://www.fws.gov/project/black-footed-ferret-recovery). There would be a lot less plague out there if so.
Lime disease has a similar relationship with predators that eat mice, so let's also keep an eye out for the owls and snakes.
- benterris 1y agoHow would reintroducing the black footed ferret reduce the plague ? It's not stated in that link.
- Steven420 1y agoPossibly by reducing prairie dog numbers and concentration
- pfdietz 1y agoThey reduce the density of prairie dogs.
- dreamcompiler 1y agoBFFs eat prairie dogs.
- biohcacker84 1y agoReducing prairie dog concentrations, and most often killing the weaker slower ones, which are likely infected and showing the most symptoms. Reduces spread and increases evolutionary pressure to increase resistance and possibly even become immune.
- justinclift 1y agoWonder if the same fleas that affect prarie dogs will also be at home on them?
- __MatrixMan__ 1y agoI wonder also, although I kind of doubt it. As predators, they maintain relatively low population densities and are typically the first to go extinct when things get weird. Selection would favor pathogens that instead specialize for hosts that are hard to get rid of. Mice, cockroaches, prairie dogs...
- amy_petrik 1y ago>Lime disease Ah yes, good old Lime Disease, named after the town it was invented in, "Lime, Connecticut", Abraham Lime 1898, former student of Koch's lab in Germany.