The plague-busting, prairie-dog-vaccinating, ferret-saving drone
Learning to hunt by Kimberly Fraser / USFWS.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service is adapting new technology to the business of saving and endangered species: they’re sending in the drones.
Pellet drone in flight by Randy Matchett/USFWS
Black-footed ferrets are a small, solitary, extremely territorial weasel-like animal that lives in the American west. Once abundant in central North America, today, their wild population stands at around 500. Black-footed ferrets were decimated by sylvatic plague (a close relative of the bubonic plague), as well as habitat loss and an early eradication campaign.