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 Prairie
Dog
(Cynomys leucurus )
Physical Description
The white-tailed prairie dog is a chubby rodent that is a member
of the squirrel family. It has a tawny torso, speckled with
black, a lighter belly and short legs. A dark brown, almost
black spot is located above each eye and on the cheek. This
prairie dog’s tail is tipped with white, hence the name, but can
have proximal bands of black or faint red. It averages 13.5-14.5
inches in length.
Average Weight Range
The white-tailed prairie dog weighs one and a half to three
pounds.
Reproduction
The primary breeding season for this prairie dog is late March
and early April. During a four to five hour time frame, a female
can mate with up to five different males, and pups from the same
litter often have different fathers. The gestation period is
approximately 30 days so the majority of young are born in April
and May. Litter size is 3 to 8. The female has one litter a
year. The newborn hibernates with its parents and biologists say
they have limited knowledge about life before the pup appears
above ground.
Food Usage/Selection
The primary diet of the white-tailed prairie dog is a variety of
grasses, roots, weeds, forbs and blossoms, with a preference for
forbs. The prairie dog will also eat insects and all water can
be acquired from its food. Although the white-tailed prairie dog
is almost a complete vegetarian, a nursing female has been seen
cannibalizing another’s young.
Range
The northwestern United States is the primary region for the
white-tailed prairie dog and therefore its found in the states
of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana.
Habitat
The white-tailed prairie dog usually lives in grasslands,
plateaus and plains. It establishes underground burrows
concentrated in prairie dog towns or colonies, usually
containing between 30 and 60 unoccupied and occupied burrows per
acre. A colony or town can span anywhere from one acre to
tens-of-thousands of acres of grassland habitat. Deep,
well-drained soil, year-around suitable forage including edible,
moist forage during the summer, and vegetation that the prairie
dog can see through and over are essential habitat requirements
of the white-tailed prairie dog. An area with abundant grass is
also necessary in order for the prairie dog to create grass
nests inside their burrows. The white-tailed prairie dog
inhabits higher altitudes than the black-tailed prairie dog
Common Hunting Methods
The white-tailed prairie dog is pursued with a variety of rifles
and cartridges. Many sportsmen develop specific loads just for
the prairie dog. Hunters locate a prairie dog town or colony and
a spot chosen from which to shoot. The shooting area ranges away
from less than 100 yards from the colony to over 600 yards. The
hunter usually waits for a prairie dog to show itself above the
burrow entrance and attempts a shot.
Hunting Challenges/Values
Due to their small size a prairie dog can and does provide a
challenge to sportsmen. Adding wind, blowing soil and long
distance shooting to the quick moving prairie dog and harvest of
this rodent proves to be a difficult task for both the beginning
and the expert hunter.
Interesting Tidbits
French explorers gave this species its common name. They called
the prairie dog “le petit chiens” which means "little dogs."
The prairie dog greets another with bared teeth. The dogs touch
teeth, or "kiss," as a form of recognition.
Decades of government-sponsored prairie dog extermination
programs, widespread disease, destruction of habitat, poisoning
and unregulated shooting, reduced the white-tailed prairie dog
habitat to 2% of its former range. However, in recent years many
states protect and transplant the prairie dog to public land in
an effort to recover some of the population.
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