Prairie dogs (genus Cynomys) of the original rodent back to the pastures of North America. Five different types of prairie dogs are: black-tailed, white-tailed and Gunnison, Utah, and the Mexican prairie dogs, they are a type of squirrel, found in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In Mexico.
Was found on prairie dogs in the first place in the northern states, which is located at the southern end of the Great Plains: North East Sonora north and northeast of Chihuahua in northern Coahuila north of Nuevo Leon, and the northern Tamaulipas, in the United States, ranging in the first place to the west of the River Mississippi, although it may also be introduced in a few Eastern languages are herbivorous.
On average, the prairie dogs grow to be between 30 and 40 cm in length, including a short tail, and weigh between 0.5 and 1.5 kg (1, 3 lbs.), Sexual dimorphism in body mass in the prairie dog is different from 105-136% between the sexes.
Prairie dogs are mainly herbivorous, although they eat some insects, feeding mainly on grasses and small seed, in the fall, they eat the petition plants forbs, in the winter, female nursing mothers and pregnant women supplemented their diet with snow additional water, as they will eat the roots , seeds, fruit, buds, eaten grass from different species, the black-tailed prairie dogs in South Dakota eat Western bluegrass, buffalo grass, while Gunnison prairie dogs eat dandelions, and cacti as well as buffalo grass.
Prairie dogs live mainly at elevations ranging from 2,000 to 10,000 feet above sea level, and the areas where they live can get warm, such as 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer and cold as 35 ° in the winter, and live prairie dogs in areas prone to environmental hazards areas, including hailstorms, blizzards, floods, as well as drought and wildfires, burrows provide important protection for them, can burrows help prairie dogs in the control of body temperature as it is 5-10 ° C during the winter and 15-25 degrees Celsius in the summer, the prairie dog tunnel channel rainwater into groundwater systems, which prevents runoff and erosion, and can also change the composition of the soil in the region by reversing soil compaction that can be a result of grazing cattle
Burrows prairie dogs are 5-10 m (16-33 ft) in length and 2.3 meters (6.10 feet) underground entrance holes generally 10-30 cm (4.12 in) in diameter, can prairie dog burrows up to six entries. Sometimes entrances are simply flat holes in the ground, while at other times they are surrounded by piles of soil either leave the piles or strict packed. Some of the hills, known as the Dome of the drill, and can be up to 0.2-0.3 m (8.12 in) high. Other hills, known as drilling rim, and can be up to 1 meter. Drilling dome edge as observation posts used by animals to watch out for predators.
Prairie dogs are also working to protect the burrows of the floods. Holes may also provide ventilation and air enters through the hole and leave the dome through the edge of the pit, causing a breeze though burrow. Prairie dog burrows contain rooms for the provision of certain functions. They have nursery rooms for their young, and rooms for the night, and rooms for the winter. They also contain air chambers that may work to protect the burrow of floods and another listen for predators. When hiding from predators and prairie dogs Tsthaddam less deep rooms that are usually meters below the earth's surface, nursery rooms tend to be deeper, being 2.3 meters below the earth's surface
Hates a lot of big plantation owners prairie dogs because they fear that their cattle trample on their nests and get lists harm. However, the horses and cows rarely set foot in their burrows. Moreover, farm owners believe that the prairie dogs dealing with herbs and other plants that have dealt with their livestock. However, studies indicate that the prairie dogs are not only living in areas where livestock Raeia fully sponsored. There is a need to conduct more research to understand the relationship between prairie dogs and livestock. Ecologists consider this rodent to be a keystone species. They are an important prey species, being the primary diet in prairie species such as the black-footed ferret, swift fox, golden eagle, American badger, and ferruginous hawk. Other species, such as the mountain plover and the burrowing owl, also rely on prairie dog burrows for nesting areas. Even grazing species, such as plains bison, pronghorn, and mule deer have shown a proclivity for grazing on the same land used by prairie dogs.
Nevertheless, prairie dogs are often identified as pests and exterminated from agricultural properties because they are capable of damaging crops, as they clear the immediate area around their burrows of most vegetation.
A black-tailed prairie dog forages above ground for grasses and leaves.
As a result, prairie dog habitat has been affected by direct removal by farmers, as well as the more obvious encroachment of urban development, which has greatly reduced their populations. The removal of prairie dogs "causes undesirable spread of brush", the costs of which to livestock range may outweigh the benefits of removal.[17] The largest remaining community comprises black-tailed prairie dogs.[citation needed] In spite of human encroachment, prairie dogs have adapted, continuing to dig burrows in open areas of western cities.
One common concern which led to the widespread extermination of prairie dog colonies was that their digging activities could injure horses[19] by fracturing their limbs. However, according to writer Fred Durso, Jr., of E Magazine, "after years of asking ranchers this question, we have found not one example."[20] Another concern is their susceptibility to bubonic plague.
In 2000, the U.S. Department of the Interior declared the black-tailed prairie dog "warranted" for listing as a threatened species, however the secretary was "precluded from actually listing the species by more urgent concerns". In 2004, the department declared that protection was "not warranted." The day after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the species from the candidate list, South Dakota announced its mass extermination campaign in the Conata Basin, home to one of the two viable black-footed ferret populations remaining in the wild. Tens of thousands of acres of prairie dog habitat was poisoned until 2006. In 2007, conservation groups filed suit in U.S. District Court in Denver challenging the secretary of the interior’s decision not to list the black-tailed prairie dog as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. Forest Guardians, Rocky Mountain Animal Defense, the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, and the Center for Native Ecosystems contended that the livestock industry and land developers pressured the federal government not to list the prairie dog. From George Wilkins Kendall's account of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition: "In their habits, they are clannish, social, and extremely convivial, never living alone like other animals, but, on the contrary, always found in villages or large settlements. They are a wild, frolicsome, madcap set of fellows when undisturbed, uneasy and ever on the move, and appear to take especial delight in chattering away the time, and visiting from hole to hole to gossip and talk over each other's affairs — at least so their actions would indicate. On several occasions I crept close to their villages, without being observed, to watch their movements. Directly in the centre of one of them I particularly noticed a very large dog, sitting in front of the door or entrance to his burrow, and by his own actions and those of his neighbors it really seemed as though he was the president, mayor, or chief at all events, he was the 'big dog' of the place. For at least an hour I secretly watched the operations in this community. During that time the large dog. I have mentioned received at least a dozen visits from his fellow-dogs, which would stop and chat with him a few moments, and then run off to their domiciles. All this while he never left his post for a moment, and I thought I could discover a gravity in his deportment not discernible in those by which he was surrounded. Far is it from me to say that the visits he received were upon business, or had anything to do with the local government of the village; but it certainly appeared so. If any animal has a system of laws regulating the body politic, it is certainly the prairie dog.
"Dog Town" or settlement of prairie dogs
From Josiah Gregg's journal, Commerce of the Prairies: "Of all the prairie animals, by far the most curious, and by no means the least celebrated, is the little prairie dog. ...The flesh, though often eaten by travelers, is not esteemed savory. It was denominated the 'barking squirrel', the 'prairie ground-squirrel', etc., by early explorers, with much more apparent propriety than the present established name. Its yelp, which resembles that of the little toy-dog, seems its only canine attribute. It rather appears to occupy a middle ground betwixt the rabbit and squirrel — like the former in feeding and burrowing — like the latter in frisking, flirting, sitting erect, and somewhat so in its barking. The prairie dog has been reckoned by some naturalists a species of the marmot (arctomys ludoviciana); yet it seems to possess scarce any other quality in common with this animal except that of burrowing. ...I have the concurrent testimony of several persons, who have been upon the Prairies in winter, that, like rabbits and squirrels, they issue from their holes every soft day; and therefore lay up no doubt a hoard of 'hay' (as there is rarely anything else to be found in the vicinity of their towns) for winter's use. A collection of their burrows has been termed by travelers a 'dog town,' which comprises from a dozen or so, to some thousands in the same vicinity; often covering an area of several square miles. They generally locate upon firm dry plains, coated with fine short grass, upon which they feed; for they are no doubt exclusively herbivorous. But even when tall coarse grass surrounds, they seem commonly to destroy this within their 'streets,' which are nearly always found 'paved' with a fine species suited to their palates. They must need but little water, if any at all, as their 'towns' are often, indeed generally, found in the midst of the most arid plains — unless we suppose they dig down to subterranean fountains. At least they evidently burrow remarkably deep. Attempts either to dig or drown them out of their holes have generally proved unsuccessful. Approaching a 'village,' the little dogs may be observed about the 'streets' — passing from dwelling to dwelling apparently on visits — sometimes a few clustered together as though in council — here feeding upon the tender herbage — there cleansing their 'houses,' or brushing the little hillock about the door — yet all quiet. Upon seeing a stranger, however, each streaks it to its home, but is apt to stop at the entrance, and spread the general alarm by a succession of shrill yelps, usually sitting erect. Yet at the report of a gun or the too near approach of the visitor, they dart down and are seen no more till the cause of alarm seems to have disappeared In companies that use large numbers of cubicles in a common space, employees sometimes use the term prairie dogging to refer to the action of several people simultaneously looking over the walls of their cubicles in response to a noise or other distraction. This action is thought to resemble the startled response of a group of prairie dogs
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Nevertheless, prairie dogs are often identified as pests and exterminated from agricultural properties because they are capable of damaging crops, as they clear the immediate area around their burrows of most vegetation.
A black-tailed prairie dog forages above ground for grasses and leaves.
As a result, prairie dog habitat has been affected by direct removal by farmers, as well as the more obvious encroachment of urban development, which has greatly reduced their populations. The removal of prairie dogs "causes undesirable spread of brush", the costs of which to livestock range may outweigh the benefits of removal.[17] The largest remaining community comprises black-tailed prairie dogs.[citation needed] In spite of human encroachment, prairie dogs have adapted, continuing to dig burrows in open areas of western cities.
One common concern which led to the widespread extermination of prairie dog colonies was that their digging activities could injure horses[19] by fracturing their limbs. However, according to writer Fred Durso, Jr., of E Magazine, "after years of asking ranchers this question, we have found not one example."[20] Another concern is their susceptibility to bubonic plague.
In 2000, the U.S. Department of the Interior declared the black-tailed prairie dog "warranted" for listing as a threatened species, however the secretary was "precluded from actually listing the species by more urgent concerns". In 2004, the department declared that protection was "not warranted." The day after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the species from the candidate list, South Dakota announced its mass extermination campaign in the Conata Basin, home to one of the two viable black-footed ferret populations remaining in the wild. Tens of thousands of acres of prairie dog habitat was poisoned until 2006. In 2007, conservation groups filed suit in U.S. District Court in Denver challenging the secretary of the interior’s decision not to list the black-tailed prairie dog as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. Forest Guardians, Rocky Mountain Animal Defense, the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, and the Center for Native Ecosystems contended that the livestock industry and land developers pressured the federal government not to list the prairie dog. From George Wilkins Kendall's account of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition: "In their habits, they are clannish, social, and extremely convivial, never living alone like other animals, but, on the contrary, always found in villages or large settlements. They are a wild, frolicsome, madcap set of fellows when undisturbed, uneasy and ever on the move, and appear to take especial delight in chattering away the time, and visiting from hole to hole to gossip and talk over each other's affairs — at least so their actions would indicate. On several occasions I crept close to their villages, without being observed, to watch their movements. Directly in the centre of one of them I particularly noticed a very large dog, sitting in front of the door or entrance to his burrow, and by his own actions and those of his neighbors it really seemed as though he was the president, mayor, or chief at all events, he was the 'big dog' of the place. For at least an hour I secretly watched the operations in this community. During that time the large dog. I have mentioned received at least a dozen visits from his fellow-dogs, which would stop and chat with him a few moments, and then run off to their domiciles. All this while he never left his post for a moment, and I thought I could discover a gravity in his deportment not discernible in those by which he was surrounded. Far is it from me to say that the visits he received were upon business, or had anything to do with the local government of the village; but it certainly appeared so. If any animal has a system of laws regulating the body politic, it is certainly the prairie dog.
"Dog Town" or settlement of prairie dogs
From Josiah Gregg's journal, Commerce of the Prairies: "Of all the prairie animals, by far the most curious, and by no means the least celebrated, is the little prairie dog. ...The flesh, though often eaten by travelers, is not esteemed savory. It was denominated the 'barking squirrel', the 'prairie ground-squirrel', etc., by early explorers, with much more apparent propriety than the present established name. Its yelp, which resembles that of the little toy-dog, seems its only canine attribute. It rather appears to occupy a middle ground betwixt the rabbit and squirrel — like the former in feeding and burrowing — like the latter in frisking, flirting, sitting erect, and somewhat so in its barking. The prairie dog has been reckoned by some naturalists a species of the marmot (arctomys ludoviciana); yet it seems to possess scarce any other quality in common with this animal except that of burrowing. ...I have the concurrent testimony of several persons, who have been upon the Prairies in winter, that, like rabbits and squirrels, they issue from their holes every soft day; and therefore lay up no doubt a hoard of 'hay' (as there is rarely anything else to be found in the vicinity of their towns) for winter's use. A collection of their burrows has been termed by travelers a 'dog town,' which comprises from a dozen or so, to some thousands in the same vicinity; often covering an area of several square miles. They generally locate upon firm dry plains, coated with fine short grass, upon which they feed; for they are no doubt exclusively herbivorous. But even when tall coarse grass surrounds, they seem commonly to destroy this within their 'streets,' which are nearly always found 'paved' with a fine species suited to their palates. They must need but little water, if any at all, as their 'towns' are often, indeed generally, found in the midst of the most arid plains — unless we suppose they dig down to subterranean fountains. At least they evidently burrow remarkably deep. Attempts either to dig or drown them out of their holes have generally proved unsuccessful. Approaching a 'village,' the little dogs may be observed about the 'streets' — passing from dwelling to dwelling apparently on visits — sometimes a few clustered together as though in council — here feeding upon the tender herbage — there cleansing their 'houses,' or brushing the little hillock about the door — yet all quiet. Upon seeing a stranger, however, each streaks it to its home, but is apt to stop at the entrance, and spread the general alarm by a succession of shrill yelps, usually sitting erect. Yet at the report of a gun or the too near approach of the visitor, they dart down and are seen no more till the cause of alarm seems to have disappeared In companies that use large numbers of cubicles in a common space, employees sometimes use the term prairie dogging to refer to the action of several people simultaneously looking over the walls of their cubicles in response to a noise or other distraction. This action is thought to resemble the startled response of a group of prairie dogs
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