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Black-tailed prairie dog

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The black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) is a burrowing ground squirrel of the North American prairies.[1]

Classification

Prairie dogs (genus Cynomys) belong to the tribe Marmotini of the squirrel family, Sciuridae. Their fossils are known from the late Pliocene, about 2 million years ago.[2][3] There are five species. The black-tailed and Mexican prairie dogs form one group, separate from Gunnison's and Utah prairie dogs.[2][4]

Description

The fur is buff to cinnamon above and pale below, and the tail is dark on its last third. Adults weigh roughly 690 to 905 g, depending on the season, and males are 10 to 15 per cent heavier than females.[1]

Distribution and habitat

The species ranges from southern Saskatchewan, Montana and North Dakota south to New Mexico and west Texas. It has been reintroduced to Arizona, Sonora and Chihuahua. It lives on open short-grass and mixed-grass prairie, including grazed or mown land.[1][5] Colonies have sparse, short vegetation.[6]

Social life

Black-tailed prairie dogs live in towns made up of family territories called coteries.[7][4][5][8] A coterie typically holds one male, two or three females and one or two yearlings, on about 0.3 ha with around 70 burrows. One town in Oklahoma was about 35 km long.[7] The animals give alarm calls and a territorial "jump-yip" call, and use at least 12 different sounds.[7] Its alarm call is a "chirk".[5] In a long study at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, females called as often when only more distant kin were nearby as when their own young were present.[4][9]

Infanticide is common. Thorington and colleagues report that it causes 39 per cent of juvenile deaths, and Hoogland found that killing by animals other than the parents affected 39 per cent of litters.[7][10] Both sexes kill young. Of the three prairie dogs Hoogland studied, this is the only one in which females kill young that are not their own. Males kill young after moving into a new territory.[11][10]

Breeding

Pregnancy lasts 34 to 35 days. Litters of three or four young first appear above ground at about six weeks.[1] Only about half of adult females give birth each year, partly because females usually do not mate as yearlings.[9] Only 33 per cent of females mate with more than one male in a year, and as few as 5 per cent of litters were shown to have more than one father.[12] First-year survival is about 50 per cent. The longest recorded lifespans are 8 years for females and 5 years for males.[7]

Decline and conservation

The area occupied by the species has fallen by about 98 per cent, from about 40 million to about 766,400 hectares, through habitat conversion, poisoning and shooting.[7] Hoogland writes that poisoned baits killed billions of prairie dogs and shooting killed millions.[13] The Smithsonian's National Zoo gives the early 20th-century range as about 40 million hectares and says the loss of open prairie has greatly reduced numbers.[5] Sylvatic plague, introduced in the early 1900s, can wipe out whole colonies, and it usually kills more than 95 per cent of a colony.[7][14] The species is considered important to the grassland ecosystem. Black-footed ferrets depend on large colonies, and mountain plovers and burrowing owls prefer them.[7][15]

Status

Animal Diversity Web lists the black-tailed prairie dog as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Thorington, Richard W. Jr.; Koprowski, John L.; Steele, Michael A.; Whatton, James F. (2012). Squirrels of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 263. ISBN 9781421408682.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Thorington, Richard W. Jr.; Koprowski, John L.; Steele, Michael A.; Whatton, James F. (2012). Squirrels of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 2. ISBN 9781421408682.
  3. ↑ Thorington, Richard W. Jr.; Koprowski, John L.; Steele, Michael A.; Whatton, James F. (2012). Squirrels of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 5. ISBN 9781421408682.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Hoogland, John L. (2007). "Alarm Calling, Multiple Mating, and Infanticide among Black-Tailed, Gunnison's, and Utah Prairie Dogs". In Wolff, Jerry O.; Sherman, Paul W. (eds.). Rodent Societies: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective. University of Chicago Press. p. 439. ISBN 9780226905365.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "Black-tailed prairie dog". Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.
  6. ↑ Hoogland, John L. (2007). "Alarm Calling, Multiple Mating, and Infanticide among Black-Tailed, Gunnison's, and Utah Prairie Dogs". In Wolff, Jerry O.; Sherman, Paul W. (eds.). Rodent Societies: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective. University of Chicago Press. p. 445. ISBN 9780226905365.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 Thorington, Richard W. Jr.; Koprowski, John L.; Steele, Michael A.; Whatton, James F. (2012). Squirrels of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 264. ISBN 9781421408682.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Shefferly, N. (1999). "Cynomys ludovicianus". Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Hoogland, John L. (2007). "Alarm Calling, Multiple Mating, and Infanticide among Black-Tailed, Gunnison's, and Utah Prairie Dogs". In Wolff, Jerry O.; Sherman, Paul W. (eds.). Rodent Societies: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective. University of Chicago Press. p. 441. ISBN 9780226905365.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Hoogland, John L. (2007). "Alarm Calling, Multiple Mating, and Infanticide among Black-Tailed, Gunnison's, and Utah Prairie Dogs". In Wolff, Jerry O.; Sherman, Paul W. (eds.). Rodent Societies: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective. University of Chicago Press. p. 450. ISBN 9780226905365.
  11. ↑ Hoogland, John L. (2007). "Alarm Calling, Multiple Mating, and Infanticide among Black-Tailed, Gunnison's, and Utah Prairie Dogs". In Wolff, Jerry O.; Sherman, Paul W. (eds.). Rodent Societies: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective. University of Chicago Press. p. 448. ISBN 9780226905365.
  12. ↑ Hoogland, John L. (2007). "Alarm Calling, Multiple Mating, and Infanticide among Black-Tailed, Gunnison's, and Utah Prairie Dogs". In Wolff, Jerry O.; Sherman, Paul W. (eds.). Rodent Societies: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective. University of Chicago Press. p. 444. ISBN 9780226905365.
  13. ↑ Hoogland, John L. (2007). "Conservation of Prairie Dogs". In Wolff, Jerry O.; Sherman, Paul W. (eds.). Rodent Societies: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective. University of Chicago Press. p. 473. ISBN 9780226905365.
  14. ↑ Hoogland, John L. (2007). "Conservation of Prairie Dogs". In Wolff, Jerry O.; Sherman, Paul W. (eds.). Rodent Societies: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective. University of Chicago Press. p. 474. ISBN 9780226905365.
  15. ↑ Hoogland, John L. (2007). "Conservation of Prairie Dogs". In Wolff, Jerry O.; Sherman, Paul W. (eds.). Rodent Societies: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective. University of Chicago Press. p. 475. ISBN 9780226905365.
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