Black-tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicianus)

Five species of prairie dogs are native to the plains of North America: the black-tailed (Cynomys ludovicianus) white-tailed (C. leucurus) Mexican (C. mexicanus) Gunnison's (C. gunnisoni) and the Utah prairie dog (C. parvidens). The most abundant and widely distributed is the black-tailed prairie dog, named for the black tip on its tail. The prairie dog is a rodent that belongs to the squirrel family. They have small ears, short tails and muscular legs, and a buff-colored coat which blends with the earth in which they dig their burrows. The length of an adult varies from 11 to 14 inches and weight ranges from 1 to 3 pounds. In the wild, females can live up to 8 years--males usually no more than 5. Litters range in size from 1 to 6 pups which are born naked, blind, and helpless. The survival of pups is quite high, since they remain underground until 6 weeks of age. However, mortality during the first year is about 50 percent.

Prairie dogs are very social animals, living in towns which generally range in size from 1 to 1,000 acres. Naturalist Earnest Thompson Seton estimated that about 5 billion prairie dogs inhabited North America in the early 1900s. The largest prairie dog colony on record, in Texas, measured 100 miles wide, 250 miles long, and contained an estimated 400 million prairie dogs! Each family group or "coterie" occupies an area of about 1 acre. The coterie usually consists of an adult male, several adult females, and any offspring under 2 years old. Coterie members maintain unity through physical contact such as elaborate grooming. They greet each other with a "kiss" opening their mouths and touching their teeth together. One of the most obvious features of a prairie dog town is the abundance of mounds and holes which lead to a complex system of underground tunnels. With soil excavated from these tunnels, prairie dogs construct dome-shaped mounds to use as lookout posts and to prevent water from entering their burrows.

Prairie dogs lead active lives, spending most of their time aboveground foraging. Grasses make up most of their diet, along with forbs and occasionally seeds and insects. When prairie dogs are above ground, they constantly communicate with members of their coteries and adjoining neighborhoods. They have a complex language which includes warning barks, territorial calls, defense barks, fighting snarls, fear screams, and tooth chattering. These vocalizations aid in uniting all coteries in the town. The warning bark is given at the first sight of danger, and all the prairie dogs react to the signal by repeating the bark and running toward their burrows. Many burrows are interconnected, so escape routes are left open if a predator chases a prairie dog down a burrow.

Prairie dog colonies are unique ecosystems that attract a wide variety of wildlife. Through the creation of this specific habitat, prairie dogs provide other species with shelter, food, and vegetation that would not exist in their absence. By manipulating the soil, they increase plant and animal diversity and create islands of unique habitat in a sea of grass. Studies have identified over 140 species of wildlife associated with prairie dogs towns. Many of these are declining, threatened or endangered species such as the burrowing owl, golden eagle, prairie falcon, ferruginous hawk, mountain plover, swift fox, and of course, the black-footed ferret. The survival of the black-footed ferret is inextricably linked to the survival of the prairie dog. Ferrets live in prairie dog burrows and feed on them almost exclusively.

Since the arrival of Europeans on the Great Plains, many Americans have viewed the prairie dog as vermin. As native prairie was converted to agricultural use, habitat was destroyed and humans poisoned prairie dogs out of fear that the rodents competed with their livestock for grass. As a result, the 247 million acres of grasslands once occupied by prairie dogs has been reduced by 98 percent. Besides continued poisoning, recreational shooting of prairie dogs is growing in popularity. With few regulations and no bag limits, shooters often kill hundreds of prairie dogs in a single day, drastically reducing their numbers. Finally, sylvatic plague--a disease spread by fleas to which prairie dogs have no natural immunity--is perhaps the greatest threat to their existence today.