First it was the plague, now it’s monkey
pox.
It seems like prairie dogs take it in the shorts
every time a certain primate brings a new disease to this
continent. What primate you ask? Well, the variety that includes
you and me.
In recent weeks I’ve been gritting my teeth
every time I heard a news story about pet prairie dogs spreading
monkey pox. I’ve spent a lot of time in my car talking back to the
National Public Radio news announcers. Saying things like, “Prairie
dogs got monkey pox from Gambian giant rats that WE shipped in from
Africa.” Or, “About 40,000 people die in car accidents in this
country every year. Can we please keep this disease-of-the-week in
perspective?”
In the interests of full disclosure, I
should tell you that in the past I have trapped and relocated
“wild” black-tailed prairie dogs in Colorado, out of the path of
development and into habitat conservation areas. The black-tailed
prairie dog is what is called a “keystone species.” A keystone is
the center stone in an arch; pull it out and the arch falls.
Black-tailed prairie dogs earned this title because many other
species are associated with them. One, the black-footed ferret,
almost went extinct because we wiped out the prairie dog towns this
little predator relies on. Others closely tied to prairie dog towns
include the burrowing owl, ferruginous hawk, swift fox and mountain
plover.
One of the things a newscaster said that made me
cringe was, “Since prairie dogs are so common…” Actually, we have
destroyed an estimated 99 percent of all prairie dog habitat in the
last 100 years. The federal government ruled a few years ago that
the black-tailed prairie dog qualified for listing as a threatened
species. Even so, the feds did not list it, saying other species
were in more serious trouble. They left protection and management
of the black-tailed prairie dog up to the individual
states.
Management of wild prairie dogs always has to
factor in disease –specifically, bubonic plague. About 100 years
ago, one theory goes, a ship that docked in San Francisco brought
in rats that carried plague-ridden fleas. Those fleas then began
hitching rides — and infecting — ground squirrels throughout the
West, including prairie dogs. Prairie dogs die quickly from this
so-called sylvatic or wild rodent plague. They didn’t evolve with
it and apparently have little or no immunity. An entire prairie dog
town of hundreds of animals can be wiped out in days.
Say
the word “plague,” and people understandably become alarmed. But
the chances of a plague-bearing flea on a prairie dog biting a
person are extremely remote. This is apparently because the prairie
dogs themselves die so quickly. I know a woman who has relocated
and handled prairie dogs for about 10 years, and occasionally some
of those prairie dogs carry fleas. She has never had a
problem.
Times have also changed. These days, plague is
usually curable with a dose of antibiotics, assuming there is a
correct diagnosis.
But now there’s this little
problem of monkey pox. Toward the bottom of stories about prairie
dogs and monkey pox, patient readers discovered that investigators
believe monkey pox arrived here in giant Gambian rats that were
imported for pets. These animals apparently infected young prairie
dogs that had been captured to be sold as pets.
Since
monkey pox, a disease related to small pox, can be fatal, the
federal government imposed rules restricting contact with prairie
dogs. Beyond the obvious health issue, some folks working to keep
prairie dogs alive in the wild are likely to see this as a good
thing.
They don’t want wild prairie dogs captured for pets
— most pet prairie dogs come from the wild — because captive
breeding is difficult. I have mixed feelings. Assuming a prairie
dog town is going to be destroyed, if youngsters are taken for
pets, at least a few animals survive. And maybe they provide good
PR for their still-wild cousins. Prairie dogs are very sociable,
and when a young prairie dog is taken from its family group or
coterie, it will bond with its human caretakers.
Now, it
happens to be illegal to have pet prairie dogs in Colorado. Despite
that, these new federal restrictions prompted Colorado to briefly
ban relocation of wild prairie dogs, which would have no reason to
have monkey pox. Recently the state lifted the ban, after getting
approval from federal officials.
Also on the brighter
side, I noticed that some news stories have begun to downplay the
prairie dog angle in the monkey pox story. Once I even heard an
entire radio report on the disease that didn’t mention prairie
dogs.
Maybe someone, somewhere, overheard me ranting in my
car.
Patricia Walsh does natural resource work
on in the Denver, Colorado, area and is a contributor to Writers on
the Range, a syndication service of High Country News
(hcn.org).
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