US government plans to use drones to fire vaccine-laced M&Ms at ferrets

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has a plan to save the endangered black-footed ferret, and it involves candy. The agency has proposed delivering vaccines to a ferret colony in Montana using drones capable of shooting vaccine-laced M&M's, The Guardian reports.

According to the USFWS, the black-footed ferret has been endangered since 1967, and remains very rare (only around 300 live across the US). One of the threats to the ferret population is the Sylvatic plague, a bacterial disease transmitted by fleas. The plague is lethal to both ferrets and prairie dogs, who provide ferrets with a source of food and tunnels for shelter. An oral Sylvatic plague vaccine has already been developed and approved for prairie dogs and ferrets, and...