Plague found in Badlands area prairie dogs, NPS says (2024)

by: Rae Yost

Posted: Jun 6, 2024 / 11:10 AM CDT

Updated: Jun 6, 2024 / 05:32 PM CDT

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The plague has been confirmed in prairie dogs in theBadlands National Park, Buffalo Gap National Grassland, and the greater Conata-Badlands ecosystem, according to the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service.

The plague was confirmed from May 31 tests.

“The issue was discovered last week when three deceased prairie dogs were discovered above ground,” Meredith Mingledorff of the NPS said in an email to KELOLAND News.

“Plague is a non-native bacterial disease that occurs in rodents and their fleas throughout the western U.S.,” the NPS said.

Once Eric Veach, the superintendent of Badlands National Park, learned of the plague, “he and his team immediately took action to inform the public to reduce future risk to park visitors,” Mingledorff said.

The NPS has also posted signs for park visitors for awareness, safety and risk reduction.

Humans can get the plague but the risk is low, the NPS said.

KELOLAND’s Chief Photographer Kevin Kjergaard captured video, attached above, of the prairie dogs at the Badlands for CBS Sunday Morning in August 2021.

The area is known for a population of the endangered black-footed ferrets which along, with the prairie dog, may be at the greatest risk from plague.

The Conata Basin has the largest black-footed ferret population in the world, Travis Livieri said in an April 22 KELOLAND News story Livieri is a biologist with the Prairie Wildlife Research organization, a non-profit working with federal agencies and others to restore the black-foot ferret population.

The ferrets are one of the most endangered mammals in the world. When the disease infected mammals in the Conata Basin in 2009, it killed more than 80% of the black-footed ferret population, a news release from the NPS said.

In April, the U.S. Forest Service announced it would permanently ban prairie dog hunting inan area of the Conata Basin to help protect the black-footed ferret.

“This area has been closed to (prairie dog) hunting since the late 1990s,” Livieri said.

The NPS, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Forest Service are working to determine how many prairied dogs may have died from the plague, Mingledorff said.

“Because the prairie dog colonies live and burrow underground, an estimate of effected animals is unknown at this time,” Mingledorff said in the email.

In response to the plague, the NPS and U.S. Forest Service and conservation partners are applying emergency flea control agents to stop the spread, according to the release. They are also monitoring for plague activity in the Conata-Badlands area.

Livieri and his partners also work on yearly insecticide use, he said in the April KELOLAND News said. An insecticide that kills fleas is sprayed into burrows. Young black-footed ferrets are captured and vaccinated and released, Livieri said in April.

The black-footed ferret depends on the prairie dog. Ferrets will often use an abandoned prairie dog burrow as a home. According to the NPS, prairie dogs make up about 90% of a black-footed ferret’s food. A ferret eats a prairie dog about every three days. The average ferret family will need about 250 prairie dogs a year, according to the NPS. A single ferret can eat about 100 prairie dogs a year.

The risk to humans can be prevented by the actions below, according to the NPS.

• Avoid contact with rodents and their fleas and burrows.
• Wear insect repellent when working or recreating outdoors. Wear long pants tucked into socks and closed-toe shoes.
• Never touch or approach a sick or dead animal, and never feed wildlife.-Do not pitch tents near rodent burrows.
• Keep pets leashed and current on a flea and tick preventative.
• Know the signs and symptoms of plague. If you develop fever, chills, swelling at the site of an insect bite or nearby lymph node, seek medical care immediately and inform your doctor you may have been exposed to plague.