Page:Land Protection Plan - Wyoming Toad Conservation Area.pdf/30

{|style="width:100%; border-bottom:2px solid black" multitude of public and private partners on the Wyoming toad recovery team, is focused on practical aspects of Wyoming toad recovery, such as defining optimal habitat for the early stages (egg, tadpole, and metamorph) of the toad’s life cycle in terms of thermal regimes, and devising optimal early stage rearing pens that will optimize the survival of released tadpoles.
 * 20Land Protection Plan—Wyoming Toad Conservation Area, Wyoming
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Black-footed Ferret

The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) is a nocturnal predator that is an extreme habitat-prey specialist, meaning that it lives only in prairie dog burrows and it eats mostly prairie dogs. First described in 1851 by Audubon and Bachman, the ferret was listed in 1967 under the Endangered Species Preservation Act and was listed in 1973 under the current Endangered Species Act (Esch et al. 2005). In 1981, a small population was discovered near Meeteetse, Wyoming (USFWS 1988), and captive breeding and reintroduction efforts began that continue today.

Although the species does not now live in the project area, there are black-footed ferret colonies to the north that could expand to the Laramie Plains within the next few years from the original reintroduction center in the Shirley Basin. The project area is within the historical range of the black-footed ferret, and Albany County has been identified as a possible reintroduction area by the Black-Footed Ferret Recovery Team. While all of the colonies in the Laramie Plains have not been formally surveyed and monitored, an informal assessment of the area in 2010 noted that most prairie dog colonies were active. On Hutton Lake Refuge alone, 541 acres of white-tailed prairie dog colonies have been mapped.

Preble’s Meadow Jumping Mouse

The Preble’s meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius preblei) is a small rodent in the Dipodidae family and is one of 12 recognized subspecies of Zapus hudsonius, the meadow jumping mouse. The range of the Preble’s subspecies in the Laramie Plains of Wyoming has not been documented with certainty, but there is some chance that it co-occupies the basin with the closely related and physically indistinguishable western jumping mouse (Zapus princeps). Preble’s meadow jumping mouse lives in areas of lush riparian vegetation, usually with some woody overstory in the form of trees or shrubs, immediately next to streams, ditches, ponds, or lakes. The subspecies will range occasionally into upland habitats, but always returns to and centers its activities in dense vegetation near water. In Wyoming, Preble’s meadow jumping mouse has been definitively documented east of the Laramie Mountains in eastern Albany, western Laramie and Platte, and southern Converse Counties. If Preble’s meadow jumping mouse is documented in the future, the proposed action will have direct and positive effects on the subspecies’ recovery by providing and maintaining high-quality riparian habitat.

Little Brown Bat

The little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), which is one of the most common bats in southeastern Wyoming, may use the project area. The species roosts during the day in cavities and other sheltered areas in a wide variety of substrates—buildings, caves, cliffs, boulders, trees (both live and dead), downed logs, and similar habitats—and feeds at night on a variety of insects over wetlands and riparian corridors. The little brown bat does not migrate, but rather hibernates through the winter in secure cavities. The species is now being reviewed for listing under the Endangered Species Act due primarily to huge losses in little brown bat populations in the eastern United States that have been caused by an exotic fungus, termed “white-nose syndrome.” The fungus and associated syndrome have been moving steadily westward over the past 6 years, but have not yet reached Wyoming or affected Wyoming bat populations (Griscom et al. 2012). However, there is reason to assume that this fungus will eventually threaten bats in the region. Preservation of wooded riparian corridors that provide roosting and feeding habitat,