Habitat

Prairie dogs are found geographically throughout the western part of the United States, ranging as far north as Canada, to as far south as Mexico (Desert USA, 1996). This geographic range extends 400 miles east from the Rocky Mountains (Chance, 1976). Prairie dogs belong to the squirrel family and are most similar to ground squirrels, chipmunks, and marmots. There are five different species of prairie dogs including the Black- tailed Prairie Dog, Gunnison’s Prairie Dog, White- tailed Prairie Dog, Mexican Prairie Dog, and Utah Prairie Dog. Black- tailed Prairie Dogs, or C. ludovicianus are found from central Texas to Canada, White- tailed Prairie Dogs, or C. leucurus, are found in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana, Gunnison’s Prairie Dogs or C. gunnisoni are found around the four corners of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. As one would expect, the Utah Prairie Dog, or C. parvidens is found in Utah and the Mexican Prairie Dog, or C. mexicanus is found very sporadically in Mexico (DesertUSA, 1996).

Photograph courtesy of Wind Cave National Park

Photograph courtesy of Roberta Stacy

Diet

As their name suggests, prairie dogs are found in the prairie, or open grassland. The prairie dog is mainly an herbivore because of the large abundance of grasses within its habitat. There is a wide variety of grasses that the prairie dog is known to eat. For a South- Dakotan Black- tailed prairie dog, these grasses include western bluegrass, blue grama, buffalo grass, sixweeks fescue, and tumblegrass (Long, 2002). Gunnison’s prairie dogs are known to eat buffalo grass and blue grama in addition to rabbit basin, tumbleweeds, dandelions, saltbush and cacti. Other grasses that prairie dogs may eat include arrow feather, beardgrass, bentgrass, biscuitroot, bluegrass, bluestem wheatgrass, and breadroot. Prairie dogs also eat roots, seeds, fruit, buds, and flowers that they may find in their territory. Prairie dogs may consume some insects and buffalo dung, but this food choice is largely due to accidental consumption of animal matter while eating grasses. The only insect that prairie dogs do consume intentionally is the grasshopper. The diet of the prairie dog not only depends on their geographic range, but also the season. Depending on what is most abundant in that season, they will choose their diet. In the fall prairie dogs may eat dried grasses more, while during the winter, they may supplement their food intake with snow to get extra water. This water is especially important for lactating or pregnant females (Long, 2002).

Photograph courtesy of Sand Prairie Farm

Photograph courtesy of Michael Bates

Prairie Dog Burrows

The altitude of the area that the prairie dog inhabits ranges from 2,000 feet to 10,000 feet above sea level (Chance, 1976). Depending what geographic range the prairie dog inhabits, they are subject to different environmental threats. Temperatures in areas in which the prairie dog inhabits may range from 100 degrees in the summer to -35 degrees in the winter (Chance, 1976). Prairie dog habitats are prone to environmental threats such as hailstorms, blizzards, and floods as well as the opposite spectrum of droughts and prairie fires. Because of this harsh habitat, a protection from the weather is very important. Prairie dogs find this protection in the form of a burrow (Chance, 1976).

Prairie dog burrows contain entrance holes that are from 10 to 30 centimeters in diameter (Hoogland, 1995). These burrows are 5 to 10 meters long and 2 to 3 meters below the ground (Hoogland, 1995). Most prairie dog burrows have one to two entrances, while others may have as many as six (Hoogland, 1995).

While sometimes the entrances of prairie dog burrows are no more that a hole in the flat ground, other times these entrances are very functional (Hoogland, 1995). There may be holes that are surrounded by piles of dirt. These piles of dirt are either packed down hard or left as a pile. The mounds can be 0.2 to 0.3 meters high (Hoogland, 1995). These mounds are known as dome craters. Other mounds are as high as 1 meter and are known as rim craters (Hoogland,1995). Dome craters and rim craters can serve as predator protection because the increased elevation of the mounds helps serve as a lookout post for prairie dogs scanning for predators. Dome and rim craters also help to protect the burrow from flooding. Another postulated reason for dome and rim craters is the Bernoulli’s principle. According to Bernoulli’s principle, as air enters through the dome crater and leaves through the rim crater, a breeze can be felt in the burrow. Thus these mounds facilitate ventilation (Hoogland, 1995).

Burrows may also serve as a temperature control, especially during the hot summers and cool winters. In the winter, the burrows are usually 5- 10 degrees Celsius, while in the summer they are usually 15-25 degrees Celsius (Hoogland, 1995).

Prairie dog burrows have many chambers. Among these are nursery chambers, nighttime chambers and winter chambers, as well as a listening post for predators and an air chamber that may protect from flooding (Chance, 1976). Burrows that are less deep, around the depth of one meter, serve as a hiding place from predators (Hoogland, 1995). Deeper burrows, around the depths of two to two and a half feet function as nursery burrows (Hoogland, 1995).