FWS

Mountain-Prairie Region

12-MONTH ADMINISTRATIVE FINDING, BLACK-TAILED PRAIRIE DOG

Table 1. Summary of Estimates of Black-tailed Prairie Dog Occupied Habitat in Various Areas for Selected Dates (estimates in thousands of acres)

State or Country	Historic	BSFW (1961)	Other Recent	Mulhern & Knowles (1995)	Knowles (1995)	BFFRF Survey (1998)	States 1998	Knowles (1998)	USFWS (1999)
Arizona	650 (AGF&P)	0	0	0	0		0	0	0
Colorado	3,000 (Clark 1989) 7,000 (Knowles 1998)	96	89 in 1979 (Van Pelt in prep.)		<100	326	973 in 1990 (CO Dept Ag)	44	93
Kansas	2,000 (Lantz 1903) 2,500 (Knowles 1998)	50	57 (Smith 1958) 36 (Henderson & Little 1973) 47 (Vanderhoof & Robel 1992)	47	47	147		36	42
Montana	1,471 (Flath & Clark 1986) 6,000 (Knowles 1998)	28	125 (Flath & Clark 1986) >100 (Campbell 1989)	88	88		66 (MT FW&P)	65	65
Nebraska	6,000 (Knowles 1998)	30	15 in 1971 (Lock 1973)	60	60	80	60-80 (NE G&P)	60	60
New Mexico	>6,640 (Bailey 1932)	17	137 (Bodenchuck 1981)	497		107		15	39
North Dakota	2,000 (Knowles 1998)	20	>7 (Grondahl 1973) 10 (Stockrahm 1979) 25 in 1999 (Sidle pers. comm.)	21	20	15	30 (ND G&F)	20	25
Oklahoma	950 (Knowles 1998)	15	10 (Tyler 1968) 15 (Lewis & Hassien 1973) 18 (Shackford et al. 1990) 8.6 in 1999 (Lomolino in litt.)	10		70	18 (OK Dept WC)	<9.5	9
South Dakota	1,757 (Linder et al. 1972)	33	37 in 1967 (Henderson et al 1974) 60 in 1968 (Rose 1973) 700 in 1980 (Tschetter 1988) 184 in 1987 (Tschetter 1988) 147 in 1999 (Sidle pers. comm.)	247	245	175	231 in 1996 (SD GF&P)	245	147
Texas	58,000 (Bailey 1905)	26	>13 (Cottam & Caroline 1965) 90 (Cheatheam 1977) >68 (Lair & Mecham 1991)	30		227		23	71
Wyoming	16,000 (Knowles 1998)	49	133 in 1971 (Clark 1973)	204	131-204	422	131-204 in1987(WYG&F) 362 (WY Dept Ag)	70-180	125
United States	111,000 (Knowles 1998)	364		1,359		1,686		677	676
Canada	1.5-2 (Knowles 1998)		1.9 (Millson 1976) 1.6 (Laing 1986) 2.3 (Fargey pers. comm. 1998)					2	2
Mexico	1,384 (Ceballos et al. 1993)		136 (Ceballos et al. 1993)					90	90
N. America	104,000 (Anderson et al. 1986) 99,000-247,000 (Miller et al. 1996) 384,000 (Seton 1953)							769	768

1 Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife (1961).

2 Black-footed Ferret Recovery Foundation phone survey, September 1998.

3 State Agency responses to 1998 petition and 90-day finding.

4 Fish and Wildlife Service’s best estimate of current occupied habitat (1999).

5 Includes all prairie dog species present.

Table 2. Geographical Information System Estimation of Potential Black-tailed Prairie Dog Occupied Habitat (in acres).

State	Total Range	Croplands Within Range	Grass/Shrub Within Range	Potential Habitat	20 Percent of Potential Habitat*
Arizona	8,516,730	345,862	6,635,691	6,981,553	1,396,311
Colorado	33,151,600	11,601,300	15,621,810	27,223,110	5,444,622
Kansas	38,136,400	27,839,336	9,676,833	37,516,169	7,503,234
Montana	66,140,400	15,841,388	37,496,108	53,337,496	10,667,499
Nebraska	46,719,300	25,578,936	19,526,548	45,105,484	9,021,097
New Mexico	53,838,600	2,536,731	42,213,264	44,749,995	8,949,999
North Dakota	11,357,400	5,808,501	5,194,639	11,003,140	2,200,628
Oklahoma	24,849,900	15,953,241	7,170,891	23,124,132	4,624,826
South Dakota	35,036,500	13,921,928	18,131,964	32,053,892	6,410,778
Texas	93,048,100	23,558,038	59,957,784	83,515,822	16,703,164
Wyoming	37,354,300	3,477,034	25,452,430	28,929,464	5,785,893
Total	448,149,230	146,462,295	247,077,962	393,540,257	78,708,051

* It has been estimated that historically, approximately 20 percent of all potential habitat was inhabited by the species at any given time (Whicker and Detling 1988).

Table 3. Listing Priority Guidance for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (48 FR 43098).

Magnitude of Threat	Immediacy of Threat	Taxonomy	LPN
High	Imminent	Monotypic genus	1
		Species	2
		Subspecies/population	3

	Non-Imminent	Monotypic genus	4
		Species	5
		Subspecies/population	6

Moderate to Low	Imminent	Monotypic genus	7
		Species	8
		Subspecies/population	9

	Non-Imminent	Monotypic genus	10
		Species	11
		Subspecies/population	12

Table 4. Region 6 Listing Priorities as of November 1999.

SPECIES	LEAD OFFICE	STATUS	LISTING PRIORITY
Proposed Species
Colorado Butterfly Plant	Cheyenne, WY	Proposed (T) March 24, 1998
Desert Yellowhead	Cheyenne, WY	Proposed (T) December, 22, 1998
Lynx	Helena, MT	Proposed (T) July, 8, 1998	6-month extension to January 2000
Mountain Plover	Grand Junction, CO	Proposed (T) February 16, 1999
Pending Proposed Rule
2 plant species		Previous Candidates	Proposed rule submitted to WO
Court Orders
Virgin River Chub Critical Habitat	Salt Lake, UT	Court-ordered designation due January 20, 2000
Piping Plover Critical Habitat	Pierre, SD	*In settlement negotiations
Candidate Species
Sicklefin Chub	Bismarck, ND	Candidate (petitioned)	2
Sturgeon Chub	Bismarck, ND	Candidate (petitioned)	2
Fat-whorled (Bonneville) Pond Snail	Salt Lake, UT	Candidate	2
Sleeping-Ute Milk-Vetch	Lakewood, CO	Candidate	2
Boreal Toad (Southern Rocky Mtn population)	Grand Junction, CO	Candidate (warranted but precluded)	3
Arkansas Darter	Manhattan, KS	Candidate	5
Graham Beardtongue	Lakewood, CO	Candidate	5
Parachute Beardtongue	Lakewood, CO	Candidate	5
White River Beardtongue	Salt Lake, UT	Candidate	6
Swift Fox	Pierre, SD	Candidate (warranted but precluded)	8
Aquarius Indian Paintbrush	Salt Lake, UT	Candidate	8
Horseshoe Milk-Vetch	Salt Lake, UT	Candidate	8

* Action pending. Settlement could require completion of critical habitat for this species in a timeframe which would preclude completion of other listing actions.