These small animals create huge complexes of tunnels
and mounds surrounded by short-clipped grass that
provide homes and shelter for many creatures including
burrowing owls, badgers, rabbits, prairie rattlers,
mountain plovers, and North America's most endangered
mammal, the black-footed ferret.
The black-tailed prairie dog is a critical food source
for a number of prairie species including coyotes,
snakes, swift fox, ferrets, ferruginous hawks, and
golden eagles. Since black-tailed prairie dogs are the
only prairie dog species, and one of a few rodents,
that do not hibernate in the winter, these barking
squirrels are one of only a few winter food sources
for prairie predators.
While exact numbers of black-tailed prairie dogs are
difficult to determine, the best information indicates
that black-tailed prairie dogs used to inhabit 100
million acres of prairie lands in the High Plains,
from the Dakotas into Texas. Today, only approximately
one million acres of black-tailed prairie dog colonies remain.
Black-tailed prairie dogs have been poisoned
extensively by both private individuals and federal
lands managers to benefit the livestock industry, and
suffer losses from habitat destruction, unregulated
recreational shooting and plague. In almost all Plains
states, prairie dogs are classified as vermin or
pests, which allows individuals to indiscriminately
poison and shoot the species, most often without limit or license.
The decline in black-tailed prairie dog populations
has had a dramatic effect on wildlife species
associated with prairie dog colonies. Black-footed
ferrets remain North America's most endangered mammal;
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is expected
to list the mountain plover as a threatened species
under the ESA in the year 2001; and populations of
burrowing owls and ferruginous hawks are all in
decline and soon may warrant listing.
For More information on the Prairie Dog please visit
Black Tailed PrairieDog
For state to state Status visit
State to State Status
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