P is for Prairie
Dogs! I know I nearly gave it away
yesterday; talking about Prairie Dog Town
USA, but I just love these little critters!
And they seem to love us too, since they’re not afraid to walk right up
to see what you have to snack on. :-)
They are
delightful to watch at play and are quite affectionate with each other; sharing
frequent hugs and nose-nuzzles. To warn of danger they have a pitched warning
bark that signals different types of predators. Studies suggest that prairie
dogs may have one of the most sophisticated of all natural animal languages.
Typically
before the young come out to play in the morning a sentry will pop up out of a
burrow to have a look around. While prairie dog tunnels actually assist in
erosion prevention by funneling rainwater into the water table, studies provide
conflicting conclusions as to the benefits and detriments of prairie dog towns
on farms and cattle ranges and at one point drastic measures were employed to
prevent what some perceived as further damage.
Though the
Prairie dog population was nearly wiped out (entirely eradicated in Arizona) in
the twentieth century, these prairie dwellers are resilient and replenished
their numbers almost as fast as they rebuilt massive spreads of complex
underground tunnels (the largest documented Prairie dog town covered 25000
square miles!) in wide-open areas of western cities where they are no longer a
threat to ranchers and livestock; which couldn’t have been easy considering a
typical male has to defend his territory against other males at least twenty
times a day.
Fortunately
for the prairie dogs, toxicants are now largely restricted and the native
prairie dwellers of Arizona have been reintroduced!
