Prairie Dogs

The prairie dog issue has confused me greatly. Here is a nusiance critter that is all over the place, in large numbers, and it is a "candidate species for Federal protection under the Endangerd Species Act." Why? Can anyone answer that for me? Like I said there are little colonies all over the place and the animal has a wide distribution. They claim it's because the numbers are declining but in this area at least, I see more and more dogs and colonies all the time. I sometimes despair that I will ever understand these things. Luckily at the moment I don't have any colonies on my place and me and my handy dandy .22 will try to keep it that way.<br />n<br />nAs for <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/02/13/build/local/80-prariedogs.inc">this rancher</a> I feel for him. I really do. I understand his motivation in wanting to control this varmit but you can't posion critters on land you don't own. I know, it is public land and he has grazing leases on it, so in a way he does own it but that is not the way the world works in the US nowadays. I just hope they don't throw him in jail over this. I think there is more important fish to fry then him.<br />n<br />n<b>It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought. John Kenneth Galbraith</b>