• SHUT DOWN: Mexico’s environmental prosecutor office (PROFEPA) temporarily shut down some potato growing operations for illegally extending over 104 acres of environmentally protected land in Northeastern Mexico that are home to endangered prairie dog colonies.
• ENDEMIC: Housing some of the last families of the herbivorous burrowing rodent, the grasslands of Llano de la Soledad in the Galeana municipality of Nuevo León state have historically being at risk of commercial agriculture despite being declared a state protected area in 2002.
• DESTRUCTION: “I took the (state) inspectors where the tractor was. And (the tractor) was effectively operating on top of the prairie dogs. A slaughterhouse of run over prairie dogs. A terrible sight”, said Mauricio de la Maza, head of Pronatura Noreste, the NGO that alerted of the destruction.
• KEYSTONE: A keystone species for playing a critical role in maintaining the structure of a larger ecosystem, Mexican prairie dogs have seen 85% of its habitat destroyed by commercial agriculture since 2003, according to the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network.
