Monday, September 22, 2008

Black Tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicianus)

Their population was once as high as 5 billion, now due to massive poisoning programs from farmers and the cropping of their land, this animals population has plummeted! Naturally these guys numbers were controlled by a wide range of predators including weasels, badgers, rattlesnakes, hawks and eagles. A interesting disease also affects the prairie dogs, the bubonic plague - carried by fleas at the base of their burrow, the same disease that wiped out so many people in the 14Th century.
Prairie dogs alert each other of approaching predators through a series of "yaps" explaining the dog part of their name.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember seeing a lot of these out in the Western USA. I can see how they could be a pest to farmers despite being so cute.

Karen said...

I'm waiting for an update Jezza! More photos!

Ravi said...

WOW! What a beautiful photo. Visit www.uploaded.tv and see more photos that are beautiful.