prairie dog
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What is a prairie dog?
Prairie dogs are colony-forming squirrels that live in North American plains, high plateaus, and montane valleys. Their coats are short and coarse, with a mix of yellowish buff to reddish or cinnamon colors.
Prairie dogs create complex burrow systems, with multiple entrances marked by mounds. Black-tailed and Mexican prairie dog colonies can be quite large, divided into wards of smaller family groups. Foraging is the main daytime activity. They eat herbs, grasses, leaves, seeds, stems, and roots.
Prairie dogs communicate through alarm calls, threats, and distress calls, and they greet each other with species-specific vocalizations. Natural predators include badgers, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, eagles, and ferrets. Their populations have declined due to poisoning programs and habitat conversion.
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Where do prairie dogs live?
Prairie dogs are burrowing squirrels that form colonies in North American plains, high plateaus, and montane valleys. Black-tailed prairie dogs live throughout the Great Plains from Canada to northern Mexico. Gunnison’s prairie dogs inhabit where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet. White-tailed prairie dogs are found from eastern Wyoming through Rocky Mountain valleys to the Great Basin's eastern edge, while Utah prairie dogs are restricted to Utah's southern part. Mexican prairie dogs live in northern Mexico. Prairie dogs create elaborate burrow systems with many entrances marked by mounds.
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What do prairie dogs eat?
Prairie dogs, belonging to the genus Cynomys, mainly eat herbs, grasses, leaves, seeds, stems, and roots. In spring, they consume the succulent parts of herbs and grasses, along with leaves and new shrub growth. During the summer, their diet primarily consists of seeds. As fall and early winter approach, stems and roots become their main source of sustenance.
Black-tailed and Mexican prairie dogs remain active in winter, and they do not store food in their burrows. When food becomes scarce, they use physiological adaptations to control their metabolism, allowing them to stay in their burrows for extended periods without food or water.
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How do prairie dogs live in groups or colonies?
Prairie dogs are colony-forming squirrels that dwell in plains and valleys of North America. Black-tailed and Mexican prairie dogs live in large colonies called "towns" divided into wards of smaller family groups. These colonies often span around 100 hectares, with one Texas colony formerly stretching across 65,000 square kilometers and containing 400 million individuals.
Foraging is the main daytime activity. Prairie dogs eat herbs, grasses, leaves, shrub growth, seeds, stems, and roots. Black-tailed and Mexican prairie dogs don't hibernate and remain active in winter, while the other three species become inactive from October to March or April. Communication occurs through alarm calls, threats, and distress calls. They also greet each other using specific vocalizations to enhance group cohesion.
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Why do prairie dogs dig tunnels and burrows?
Prairie dogs dig elaborate burrow systems with many entrances marked by low or volcano-shaped mounds. These burrows form colonies that can cover large areas, sometimes divided into wards of smaller family groups. Black-tailed and Mexican prairie dogs do not hibernate and are periodically active during winter. During winter, when food is scarce, black-tails remain in their burrows for long periods without food or water, using physiological adaptations to control their metabolism.
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What threats do prairie dogs face in the wild?
Prairie dogs face threats from natural predators like badgers, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, black-footed ferrets, golden eagles, and large hawks. Their populations have also been drastically reduced due to poisoning programs by ranchers, who view them as pests, and from the conversion of their habitat into cropland.
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prairie dog, (genus Cynomys), any of five species of burrowing, colony-forming squirrels that inhabit plains, high plateaus, and montane valleys in North America. Their short, coarse fur is grizzled yellowish buff to reddish or rich cinnamon. Prairie dogs have a short tail, small rounded ears, and short legs with long, strong claws. These rodents weigh up to 1.7 kg (3.7 pounds), with a body 28–33 cm (11–13 inches) long. The slightly flattened tail is 3–12 cm (1–5 inches) long, and, depending on the species, its tip is black, white, or fringed with white around a gray centre.
Prairie dogs excavate elaborate burrow systems with many entrances marked by low or volcano-shaped mounds. The common black-tailed (C. ludovicianus) and Mexican (C. mexicanus) species live in large, dense colonies that early explorers described as “towns.” Colonies are divided by topographic and vegetational features into semidiscrete wards formed from smaller extended family groups, or coteries. Colonies usually cover about 100 hectares (247 acres), but the largest ever recorded was a black-tailed prairie dog colony in Texas that formerly stretched across 65,000 square km (25,000 square miles) and contained an estimated 400 million individuals.
During the day, foraging above ground is the principal activity. Succulent parts of herbs and grasses, leaves, and new shrub growth are eaten in the spring, and seeds are the primary component of the summer diet, with stems and roots being the mainstay in fall and early winter. The black-tailed and Mexican prairie dogs do not hibernate and are periodically active during winter; they do not store food in their burrows. During winter when food is scarce, black-tails remain in their burrows for long periods without food or water, using physiological adaptations to control their metabolism. The other three species become torpid in October or November and emerge in March or April. Late winter or early spring is the breeding season for all species, and after about a month’s gestation, females drop a litter of up to 10 young. Communication takes the form of alarm calls (repetitious barks and chuckles), threats (snarls, growls, and tooth chatters), and distress calls (screaming); individuals enhance group cohesion by greeting one another upon contact, using vocalizations that are specific to each species.
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Natural predators of prairie dogs include badgers, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, black-footed ferrets, golden eagles, and large hawks. Once abundant, prairie dog populations have been drastically reduced in range and number by poisoning programs of ranchers who have considered them as pests and by conversion of habitat to cropland. The black-tailed prairie dog (C. ludovicianus) is the most widespread, living throughout the Great Plains from Canada to northern Mexico; Gunnison’s prairie dog (Cynomys gunnisoni) occurs where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet; the white-tailed prairie dog (C. leucurus) is found from eastern Wyoming through intermontane Rocky Mountain valleys to the eastern margin of the Great Basin; the Utah prairie dog (C. parvidens) is restricted to the southern part of that state; and the Mexican prairie dog (C. mexicanus) occurs in northern Mexico.
The genus Cynomys belongs to the squirrel family (Sciuridae) of rodents (order Rodentia) and is most closely related to North American and Eurasian ground squirrels (genus Spermophilus). Fossils document their evolutionary history in western North America since the late Pliocene Epoch (3.6 to 2.6 million years ago).