Open season on "varmints": for saving endangered prairie dogs, it's the eleventh hour

E: The Environmental Magazine, July-August, 2004 by Jim Motavalli, Fred Durso, Jr.

A 1927 Colorado law (still on the books) says that prairie dogs constitute "such a grave and immediate menace to the agricultural, horticultural and livestock industries of the state that large numbers of the inhabitants engaged in such industries in the localities so in rested are in great and immediate danger of being impoverished and reduced to want by the destruction of their crops." But much of the original research on the issue was flawed, and Robertson says there is no evidence correlating weight loss in cattle with the presence of prairie dogs. "There are misconceptions about cattle competing with prairie dogs for vegetation, and these misconceptions continue today," she says.

Sterling adds, "The myth that cattle break legs in prairie dog holes is just that: myth. After years of asking ranchers this question, we have found not one example." But attitudes persist. "I don't have nothing good to say about [prairie dogs]," says an elderly female rancher in the acclaimed 1998 film Varmints by Douglas Hawes-Davis. "They're terrible. They [environmentalists] think they're extinct. They aren't extinct when there's millions of them." There were millions of them, and there still are healthy remnant populations, but there's ample evidence that concerted campaigns will wipe them out from a given region.

Varmints is a graphic film, with close-up footage of exploding prairie dogs set to a rocking score. "Explode them dawgs," says the voluble Mark Mason of the Varmint Militia, who spends his vacations shooting prairie dogs for the pure joy of seeing them airborne by the force of a .22-caliber bullet. A poet of prairie dog shooting, Mason is given to saying such things as, "You can tell when you hit 'em in the head, because their legs kick." Mason attended the film's premier, where he was asked if the movie (which offers ample commentary on prairie dog biology and conservation, as well as the hunters at work) would change his views. "Sure," he said. "I'll probably load a heavier-grained bullet." CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity, (520)623-5252, www.biologicaldiversity.org; Center for Native Ecosystems, (303)546-0214, www.nativeecosystems.org; Prairie Dog Coalition, (303)449-4422, www.prairiedogcoaliton.org.

JIM MOTAVALLI is editor of E; FRED DURSO, JR. is an intern at E.