Missed Connections

It happens. My date was a no-show. Or more accurately a no-answer.

Brian Maxfield, sensitive species biologist for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources invited me along on a survey/roundup of black-footed ferrets introduced into white-tailed prairie dog communities. Of the 31 introduced, Brian and his coworkers had inoculated 10 with a serum designed to protect them from sylvatic plague.

That plague, carried by ticks and other small pests, can decimate prairie dog communities and the ferrets that feed on them. Black-footed ferrets only recently made a comeback from the very endangered species list.

Maxfield is away from cell phone service areas most of the time. His work puts him in the heart of country where it can be rare to see humans, let alone cell towers. His office in Vernal, UT, can't get him most of the time either.

I thought about driving out to the Snake John Reef area and looking for headlights that night (the roundup takes place after dark). But anyone who has been in the borderlands around that area knows how futile that would have been.

So I'll have to see the ferrets another time. To learn more about black-footed ferrets check out this website.

The whole trip wasn't a waste, however, as I tracked some additional border points and walked another stretch along Ut/ID. More on that in another post.