(Photo courtesy Prairie Protection Colorado)

Prairie dogs have more in common with Redwood Trees and Bison than the casual observer might guess. All three thrived in great numbers before the European invasion of North America; all three suffered severe decreases in their population at the hands of the newcomers, declining by 96-99%; and all three are still, incredibly, under assault.

The Redwoods covered about 2,000,000 acres in 1850, from Monterey County in California to the Chetco River in Oregon. Now, only a few isolated islands remain. Despite this, the Redwoods still need to be defended.

The Bison’s range once stretched from Idaho to Virginia, and Minnesota to Texas, and the animals numbered 25-30 million. By 1890, Whites had hunted them down to a few hundred. The famous Yellowstone herd, which is based out of the national park, is descended from just 23 individuals and currently numbers less than 5000. Despite this, the Bison still need to be defended.

Prairie dogs are a keystone species originally found throughout the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states of the US. Though once quite common, over the past century their population has plunged by over 98% due to the activites of the US Occupation, with cascading effects to other fauna and flora. Despite this, they too still need to be defended.

Prairie dogs differ from the Redwood and the Bison in one important aspect: unlike the previous two, they enjoy very little legal protection. Only two of the five species of prairie dog are officially listed as under threat, but these laws are rarely enforced. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has so far turned down all petitions to list the other three species. At the local level, few pro-prairie dog laws exist and in fact some counties actually require the eradication of prairie dogs on private land.

So killing prairie dogs is still a common occurrence. Earlier this month, in Longmont, Colorado, a prairie dog colony was exterminated for no urgent reason and against the wishes of local residents. It was this story that brought the plight of the prairie dogs to my attention and inspired me to investigate further.
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Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), as observed by the author in the spring of 2016

This spring, if all goes as planned, the Marines will kill hundreds of Desert Tortoises in southern California. This is not the first such tortoise kill, but it could very well set a new record-high number.

This assault was originally scheduled for last spring, in 2016 (with the full approval of the Obama administration), and was put off for a year only because of a lawsuit filed by an environmentalist organization. Now, with all chances for legal appeal passed, it is set to commence in late March or April in the Mojave Desert.

So what’s the story?

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Dipodomys merriami – Merriam’s Kangaroo Rat!

The first thing I did after picking out my most recent campsite was scatter some sunflower seeds on the ground by the fire ring. I have been doing this at various sites on my current trip for two reasons. First, as a kind of ritual offering, to acknowledge to the space itself that I am a visitor who arrives with respect; similar to how a person might light a candle in a church. Second, I am imitating Edmund C. Jaeger, a 20th Century naturalist and author, known as “Dean of the California Deserts,” who did the same thing in this very desert in order to attract local wildlife so he could observe them; this is more similar to giving a bottle of wine to your host when you’re a guest.

For the first three days, the seeds laid there untouched. I spent one night someplace else and when I returned, the seeds were gone. I was excited! I tossed another handful on the ground and went about my day. I was hoping to befriend some White-Tailed Antelope Ground Squirrels (Ammospermophilis leucurus) like I’d met in this part of the country last year, but I was thrilled when another creature showed up instead.

A few minutes after the sun had gone down, but the stars weren’t out yet, I was finishing up my dinner preparations when I heard little scrabbling noises by the fire ring. I looked over and spotted an animal I had never seen in person before but immediately recognized from photos. The over-sized back legs, long tufted tail, and head nearly the size of the rest of its body were unmistakable traits: it was a Kangaroo Rat!
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