Photos

A snapshot of black-tailed prairie dogs having lunch in the South Dakota plains, taken at around noon on a September day at Wind Cave National Park.

For your enjoyment (or so I hope), I'm also attaching a workshop version in which I played around with some other prairie dog snapshots to fabricate a greeting card.

Prairie dogs are actually members of the squirrel family. They earned their name from settlers traveling west who thought their chirping alert calls sounded similar to dogs barking. Black-tailed prairie dogs are highly social animals that live in colonies or "towns", ranging in size from as small as one acre (0,4 hectares) to several thousand acres (up to approx 30 sqare kilometers). One town discovered in the 19th century was as big as Belgium! (Hi, Fred).

Prairie dog colonies are most recognizable by the mounds and holes at their burrow entrances. A colony will typically have 30 to 50 burrow entrances per acre. Mounds of excavated soil around the burrow entrance are generally cone-shaped and vary from one to three ft (31-92 cm) in height and from three to 10 ft (1-3 m) in diameter. These mounds serve as lookout points and serve to prevent water from entering the burrow system. Burrow systems typically include several chambers, including one near the entrance where the prairie dog can sit and listen for activity above ground, and one or more nest chambers where they sleep and care for their young.

Prairie dogs are active during the day, usually from about sunrise to sunset, and during summer they spend about one-third to one-half of the daylight hours feeding. Another third is involved in social interactions with other colony members as well as working on burrows and mounds and responding to alarm calls. The remainder of daylight is spent underground, especially during mid-day when temperatures above ground are high.

Black-tailed prairie dogs have an elaborate system of communication that involves a variety of verbal utterances and behavioral displays. One of these, the "jump-yip" display, is a territorial call in which they stand up on their hind legs and throw their forefeet up in the air, emitting a two-note call. They also have a variety of pitched warning barks that signal different types of predators, including hawks, owls, eagles, ravens, coyotes, badgers, ferrets and snakes. Prairie dogs communicate through smell and touch, often greeting one another by touching each other's teeth (hence, the appearance of kissing). They have only one defense that works - raising the alarm and disappearing quickly.