Government drones spray ferrets with M&Ms - CNET

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M&Ms aren't just for snacking in the office or gorging on during Halloween. They could also give the endangered black-footed ferret a better chance at survival.

In an effort to prevent the black-footed ferret population from decreasing in the United States, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, or USFWS, has devised a sweet plan to get vaccines to a Montana ferret colony using an unusual delivery method -- candy and drones.

The much needed vaccination is for the Sylvatic plague, a deadly disease transmitted via fleas that bite prairie dogs, the ferrets' main food source. The M&Ms are smeared with vaccine-laden peanut butter, which the prairie dogs eat.

Of course, getting the dosed M&Ms to animals in the most efficient way possible is no easy feat.

"We dropped the vaccine out of a bag while walking around, but that's very hard to do over thousands of acres," USFWS biologist Randy Machett told The Guardian. "We are working with private contractors to develop equipment to drop the vaccine uniformly across an area."