Black-tailed prairie dogs denied Endangered Species Act protections

Black-tailed prairie dogs were denied protection under the Endangered Species Act today.

The ruling came after federal officials concluded the once-common ground squirrels show signs of rebounding after decades of poisonings, shootings, the plague, and the loss of habitat to agriculture.

The New Mexico-based environmental activist group WildEarth Guardians petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the animal as threatened or endangered.

Prairie dogs once ranged over an estimated 50,000 square miles in at least 11 central and Western states.

Federal officials say the animals now occupy about 3,750 square miles within a range that stretches from Montana and North Dakota south to New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.

-- Associated Press

Photo: A black-tailed prairie dog peers out of its burrow at a prairie dog town in Dodge City, Kan.  Credit: Charlie Riedel / Associated Press