Allison Bleistein conducts field work in Montana

Allison Bleistein, B.S. environmental biology 2017, has completed her summer internship working on prairie dog and black-footed ferret conservation with the US  Fish and Wildlife Service in Montana . Black-footed ferrets are the most endangered mammal in North America, and are an obligate predator of prairie dogs.  Both prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets have been impacted by a bacterial infection called sylvatic plaque, a disease transmitted by fleas. Allison worked with wildlife biologists to test the effectiveness of an oral sylvatic plague vaccine for prairie dogs and to develop ways to distribute the vaccine over hundreds of acres of prairie dog colonies using drones. Her work focused on mapping prairie dog colonies with GPS devices and using ArcGIS to create updated maps of the colonies. Ali also spent several weeks trapping prairie dogs to take blood samples and collect PIT g ID numbers. She also was involved with trapping black-footed ferrets, a nocturnal animal. Alli reports that her work trapping ferrets began around 11:00 pm and ended at 6 pm. Their eyes have a unique emerald green shine that's usually pretty easy to pick out if a light hits them. Once a ferret was found, she would set a long skinny trap into the opening of their burrow and wrap a blanket around it, so that it was almost like an extension of the burrow.  Below are some photos of Alli and her critters! 
Allison Bleistein.
Black-footed ferret

Prairie dogs

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