Heart disease may not top the list of health threats facing black-tailed prairie dogs, but that doesn’t mean a cholesterol-cutting statin wouldn’t do them good - at least, according to researchers at the USDA’s National Wildlife Health Center in Colorado. Last November, several dozen wild doggies on a 10-acre test site were given feed laced with DiazaCon, a statin originally developed for human use 40 years ago. Cholesterol plays a key role in the production of sex hormones, so a high enough dose can act as a contraceptive. Both males and females are affected.

The current study is a follow up to a trial in 2000 in which DiazaCon nearly halved the reproductive rate of a treated colony compared to a control group. What this might mean for the millions of humans on statins for the long haul is unclear. Adjusted for body size, the prairie dogs were given 100x the average human dose, but only 10 doses. A handful of studies on rats and beagles suggest that normal doses of statins have no impact on sperm development. But the FDA classifies the drugs as “category X” for pregnant women, noting the potential for fetal abnormalities.

Back in Colorado, researchers will have to wait until June to see how many pups are born. They will also be keeping an eye on the sky to see whether a steady diet of low-cholesterol prairie dogs lowers the birthrate of the hawks that eat them.