ENVS 605

Article 3

Article 2

Article 1

Articles

What is it?

Yersinia pestis is a plague that is transmitted by fleas. It is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia Pestis. This bacterium is a non-native invasive species that was transported to North America during the early 1900s and was first detected in Colorado in 1940. This microbe has the potential to devastate prairie dog populations and other wildlife species.

 

Why is it a problem?

This plague affects prairie dogs, and is currently being studied in the Gunnison Prairie Dog species. Prairie dogs, often time considered a keystone species in many ecosystems, did not evolve with the bacteria. Therefore they carry little immunity to fight off the disease. It is not uncommon for an outbreak of plague to kill every prairie dog in a single colony. In May of this year the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) began research and monitoring to control plague in the Gunnison’s Prairie Dogs. According to the CPW, if unmanaged in the Basin and around all of Colorado, plague has the potential to reduce populations so low to the point that they would become federally listed as a threatened or endangered species. Additionally, the Prairie Dogs are a key food source for many wildlife species in the basin including raptors and mammalian carnivores. Their colonies often times act as habitat for species such as the burrowing owl, badger, weasel and snake.

 

Management Techniques:

• Dusting burrows in the Gunnison Basin with insecticide that kills fleas. This is very labor intensive as for the dusting to be effective every burrow in a colony must receive a dusting annually.

• Vaccine testing is currently being conducted on four prairie dog colonies in the Gunnison Basin.

 

What can we do?

• Do not interfere with research and monitoring being completed in the basin (this includes staying out of fenced areas)

 

Entities working on this invasive in the Gunnison Basin:

Colorado Parks and Wildlife

• Research into Yersinia Pestis

  • This article explains successes and failures from fighting the plague in prairie dog colonies in Gunnison

• Controlling Plague in Gunnison's Prairie Dogs

  • ​This PDF details research objectives and success in controlling Yersinia Pestis

 

Wild Earth Guardians:Report from the Burrow

• This report evaluates and grades state and federal agencies responsible for prairie dog management. This includes information on Gunnison and other areas that conduct plague mitigation and research.

 

 

 

Bubonic Plague

Yersinia pestis