The Ferret And the GM

Gainer is horrified.
The black-footed ferret is returning home to Saskatchewan's Grasslands National Park.
The animal hasn't been seen in the area since 1936. This fall Parks Canada will reintroduce about 40 of the ferrets to the park.
Another batch will be dropped off in Grasslands National Park next year. At one point the black-footed ferret was North America's most endangered mammal.
The ferret's main diet is prairie dogs. But Gainer may not have to worry. There is it seems a difference between gophers and prairie dogs. We asked the technical question. Are gophers the same as prairie dogs?
Technically, no. The loose, colloquial use of the term "gopher" might include any ground squirrel, and prairie dogs are indeed ground-living members of the family Sciuridae, but they are usually not considered gophers.
True gophers are of the family Geomyidae, and not in the squirrel family at all. They are, of course, in the same order, Rodentia.
Other ground squirrels often called gophers are of the genus Spermophilius, including the striped gopher or thirteen-lined ground squirrel (S. tridecemlineatus), the flickertail or Richardson's ground squirrel (S. richardsonii), and others.
Prairie dogs are of the tribe Marmotini, genus Cynomys, and there are about five species.
So, to diagram the relationship:
Order Rodentia
- Superfamily Geomyoidae
-- Family Geomyidae (true gophers)
- Family Sciuridae
-- Tribe Marmotini
--- Genus Spermophilius (ground squirrels, many of which are called "gophers")
--- Genus Cynomys (prairie dogs)
(I hope that's clear!)
So breathe easy Gainer, if you can figure all that out.
Gainer isn't the only connection the Saskatchewan Rough Riders have to ferrets. Ferrets like to bury in holes, they do their work underground often catching their prey, the prairie dog right in their underground hole.
Isn't that the same as the Riders are asking their General Manager to do as he works away in his basement trying to improve the lot of the Riders and devour the other seven teams in the league.?