Watch peanut butter drone strikes that could save endangered ferrets

In the summer, we reported on a government plan to fly ammunition-firing drones over the middle of America to save an adorable native animal on the brink of extinction. Now there’s video of the project, and while it’s no adrenaline-infused action film, it’s pretty cool.

The feds want to launch peanut butter drone strikes to save endangered ferrets

The stars are endangered black-footed ferrets and their primary prey, prairie dogs, both of which spend time on-screen popping their heads out of the underground burrows they both depend on. The supporting actors are government, wildlife and drone experts who have been toiling to devise efficient ways to vaccinate prairie dogs against the sylvatic plague. The disease kills prairie dogs — and thus leaves the ferrets with little to eat. The backdrop is the breezy, blue-skied American grassland where the critters reside.