The Prairie Dog: Friend Or Foe?
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Farmers and ranchers hate them. Scientists learn from them. Families enjoy watching them. Whatever their viewpoint, most people living on the prairie have a strongly-held opinion on prairie dogs.
Prairie dogs are members of the rodent family, the largest group of mammals in the world. They live in colonies on the prairie that range in size from one acre to several thousand acres. The number of prairie dogs in North America in 1920 was about 5 billion, according to naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton, and the subterranean towns they created covered more than 2 million acres. But years of purposeful eradication by federal, state, and local governments, wipeouts from flea-borne plague, ...
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essential to our prairie ecosystem. Many species dependent on prairie dogs for prey and habitat are diminishing in direct relation to the decreasing number of prairie dogs. Unlike other species, which have declined because of habitat loss due to human activities, the loss of prairie dog populations is a direct result of governmental and private landowner efforts to eradicate them. Prairie dogs and their environment must be protected by law to preserve our native prairie ecosystem.
Tim Clark, a Yale University biologist and a veteran of years of observing prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets in the field, is quoted in National Geographic’s “The Vanishing Prairie Dog”:
Prairie dogs figure prominently in the ecology of this continent. They are an umbrella species that offers prey, shelter, and habitat to other creatures, and the list is long: black-footed ferrets, burrowing owls, ferruginous hawks, badgers, mountain plovers, swift foxes, rattlesnakes, and an array of toads, ...
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The burrow system used by prairie dogs is much like the way humans set up house. The rodents have a listening post room just under the surface, set off from their main burrow. A separate room is used as a toilet and is emptied from time to time. A nesting/sleeping chamber is lined with dried grass and elevated from the bottom of the tunnels to keep water from flowing into this area. Prairie dogs possess an extremely sophisticated natural animal language and are able to tell other prairie dogs of approaching predators, identify the predator, and in the case of humans, describe the clothing and even whether he or she is carrying a gun. When a prairie dog detects danger, he lets ...
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The Prairie Dog: Friend Or Foe?. (2004, May 12). Retrieved November 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Prairie-Dog-Friend-Or-Foe/7692
"The Prairie Dog: Friend Or Foe?." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 12 May. 2004. Web. 23 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Prairie-Dog-Friend-Or-Foe/7692>
"The Prairie Dog: Friend Or Foe?." Essayworld.com. May 12, 2004. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Prairie-Dog-Friend-Or-Foe/7692.
"The Prairie Dog: Friend Or Foe?." Essayworld.com. May 12, 2004. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Prairie-Dog-Friend-Or-Foe/7692.
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