| Like
the bison, the prairie dog was once a major component of Great
Plains life. But prairie dogs have been blamed by cattle
ranchers for destroying rangelands and competing with cattle for
food. Extensive poisoning and elimination of prairie dogs have
been carried out, and today only scattered populations are found
mainly in protected areas such as state and national parks,
monuments, grasslands, and wildlife refuges. If humans had not
indiscriminately eliminated their predators, such as the ferret,
the prairie dog population would not have reached numbers enough
to overrun rangeland. Every specie has its place in this world,
and unnatural elimination of any one, big or small, is bound to
upset nature’s finely tuned balance. |
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