Prarie Dog Town

Exiting the scenic drive through Badlands National Park, heading toward Wall, take Sage Creek Rim Road to Prarie Dog Town (across the street from Buffalo National Grassland). Driving-in we saw pronghorns, and buffalo, for the first time (well we did see buffalo from the hwy in a farm zoo in Wisconsin), we even saw some running across the prairie kicking up dust reminding us of the old west. And yes we do know that they can reach speeds of 35mph, maybe even 40mph. If it is an extra special day you might spot, what we like to call, 'The Owl of Prairie Town', but it is most likely a burrowing owl (even though his coat was lighter and more beautiful than any picture I can find). Chris almost caught a picture of him perched on a sign, appearing to welcome us to his part of the prarie, but his beauty could have never really been captured. Chris and I were excited about seeing the prairie dogs, especially Chris which had been talking about them for several weeks prior to our visit, he remembers seeing them as a young boy, and has since been fond of them. We discovered that prairie dogs are much more interesting, rather than, just cute. We visited a black tailed prairie dog town, they need at least 1000 acres, and  provide for over 200 species. Some consider these little guys rodents, and they have been exterminated in great numbers in the past, we have heard you either love'm or hate'm, out here in the west most farmers don't like them, how can you farm with big holes all over the land? Nuisance or not prairie dogs are a keystone species in our ecosystem. A keystone species, by definition, are those animals that tend to hold an ecosystem together, and whose presence or absence has the greatest effect on the well-being of the other species. That's pretty amazing! Prairie dogs not only provide nutrient vegetation for cows, buffalo, deer, horses (the list goes on), but  their burrows also provide living corridors to ferrets (there are so many ferret reintroduction projects going on right now--they are endangered) lizards, rabbits, snakes, fox, and burrow owls (the list goes on), and their burrows provide animals a hiding spot from predators. And they have a pretty impressive underground system, their burrows are intricately designed, they build separate rooms like nurseries for their pups, living quarters and they even have a bathroom!! These guys are social, and more than close nit to their family. They identify each other by smell, it appears that they are kissing and looks adorable, but if a member of another coterie (smaller group of several families) goes onto a territory that is not their own they will fight to the death, loyally protecting and defending what is theirs. What we thought to be such a sweet act, we learned, could be a deadly one. Some have been seen to fight for up to 6-8 hours, a dual, could this be where the cowboys got it from? They can also be seen doing this cute little thing where they jump and yell, clapping their hands together, getting so excited. Don't mistake cuteness for intelligence. The call (the jumping and yelling) is a special job handed to one prairie dog of a coterie. They have a different call, or bark, for predators or threats, and a call to let members around know that danger has passed, they have up to eleven calls. We later discovered that the call they were making when we were around was a call that danger had passed...so they must have liked us:) If they discover a predator has figured out their call of warning they change it up, prairie dogs have lists, and lists of predators. National Parks are working hard to provide space for prairie dogs and continue to protect them.

Who knew these guys were so complex and interesting?

Side note: Most of this information we learned at Devil's Tower (post coming soon) at a Ranger talk. It was so cool because we had already been to a prairie dog town in the Badlands and seen them do everything that the ranger talked about...she answered all the questions we had without even knowing.