Home Contact Us Search Conservation ... Get Outdoors Get Newsletter All States AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY Your privacy Big Picture In a battle between Utah prairie dogs and human development, this lovable rodent is losing ground fast. Barking Ground Squirrels Round, plump, golden-colored, and unarguably cute, prairie dogs are a hallmark of the western prairie lands. They earned their name from their barking calls, which pepper their complex system of communication. Prairie dogs utilize a wealth of barks, "chirks," and whistles to communicate everything from greetings to social status to approaching danger. They are also extremely animated. When they "jump-yip" to signal potential danger, for example, they rise on their hind legs, arch their backs, toss their heads back, and extend their forelegs in one quick motion, capped by a shrill whistling call. Social animals, prairie dogs live in colony groups in prairie dog "towns" â extensive mazes of underground tunnels. Their burrows are topped by raised mounds where they frequently stand to keep watch for predators. Utah prairie dogs are one of five prairie dog species found throughout Mexico and the American West. Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark found prairie dogs and their towns in abundance. Fascinated by this "new" animal, Lewis described them as "barking squirrels," which "bark at you as you approach them, their note being much that of little toy dogs" and which were "much more quick active and fleet than [their] form would indicate." During the late 1800s, an estimated one billion black-tailed prairie dogs occupied some 600,000 square miles of the central and western grasslands, stretching down the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains from Canada to Mexico. | |
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