Badlands National Park official are encouraging visitors to use common-sense safety precautions around wildlife in the park, following the confirmation of sylvatic plague and tularemia among park prairie dogs.

Sylvatic plague was confirmed July 1 in a prairie dog colony in the Sage Creek Wilderness Area in the park. This marks the first time the flea-borne bacterial disease, which can decimate prairie dog populations and pose a threat to endangered black-footed ferrets, has been confirmed in the park itself.

Plague was detected in prairie dogs last year in the Conata Basin south of the park. The disease is rarely transmitted to humans, but park officials still advise visitors to avoid handling sick or dead animals in the park and apply insect repellant to clothing and skin to avoid bites from fleas. They also advise people to see a doctor if they believe they have been exposed.

Pets should also be carefully controlled in areas where plague is present, to prevent them from wandering into prairie dog colonies, potentially coming in contact with fleas.

Last year, natural resources officials applied insecticide to 11,000 acres of targeted prairie dog colonies in the Conata Basin-badlands ecosystem to reduce the flea population and fight the spread of the disease. Sylvatic plague was first confirmed in South Dakota in 2004, but it had previously decimated prairie dog colonies in other states.

Wildlife specialists also have detected tularemia in a prairie dog colony in the Badlands. The tick-borne disease is extremely rare in humans.