Backvalley Ferrets : A Rewilding of the Colorado Plateau / Lawrence Lenhart.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lenhart, Lawrence, author.

Series:

Crux (Athens, Ga.)

Crux: the Georgia Series in Literary Nonfiction Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Black-footed ferret--Ecology.

Black-footed ferret.

Black-footed ferret--Colorado Plateau.

Wildlife conservation.

Rare mammals--Colorado Plateau.

Rare mammals.

Aubrey Valley (Ariz.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (224 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Athens, Georgia : The University of Georgia Press, [2023]

Summary:

"Twice declared extinct, North America's most endangered mammal species, the black-footed ferret (BFF), is making a comeback thanks to an evolving conservation regimen at more than thirty reintroduction sites across the continent. Lawrence Lenhart lingers at one such site in his proverbial backyard, the Aubrey Valley in northern Arizona. He clocks hundreds of hours behind the wheel, rolling over ranch ruts as he shines a spotlight over dusky sage steppe in the hopes of catching a fleck of emerald eyeshine. The beguiling weasel at the center of this book is more than a charismatic minifauna; it is the covert ambassador of a critical ecosystem that has dwindled to 1 percent of its former size. In a landscape menaced by habitat fragmentation, bacterial plague, settler colonialism, and soil death, a ferret must be resilient. Lenhart investigates the human efforts to sustain the species through monitoring, vaccination, captive breeding, and even cloning. Lenhart balances this lens of environmental witness with personal essaying that captures the parallel story of his wife's pregnancy as he realizes the ferret's conservation story is dramatically synchronized with her trimesters. In preparing to raise a child in the Anthropocene, Lenhart takes stock of his own ecosystem and finds something is amiss. Through an ethic of "deeper ecology," Lenhart must hone his ecological interest in the black-footed ferret to assure it isn't overshadowed by his own paternal interests"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Come Out, Lazarus Taxon

Candle-Powered

Rural Purge

If the Ferret Crosses the Road

This Is Not an Entrance to the Phoenix Zoo

Where's My Little Ferret?

Mourning a Ferret

A Ferret by Any Other Name

Ventriloquism for the Eremocene

Proving Up in the New West

Up Yonder

My Son Was Born to Rob Me of the Glory of Saving

the Black-Footed Ferret from Plague

Extrapolating the Genus

Petri to Prairie.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-8203-6414-2

0-8203-6413-4

OCLC:

1476196517