Cynomys
ludovicanus
The Spanish translation of Prairie Dogs is Perros de las Praderas
Home: North American prairies
Food: Grasses, plants, burrowing owl eggs and hatchlings
Size (length with tail & weight): 11 to 14 inches
32 to 50
ounces
Prairie Dog Trivia:
- Prairie Dogs bark when danger is near.
- The Prairie Dog is really a rodent.
- Prairie Dogs dig underground tunnels, called towns.
- Prairie dogs live in colonies.
- At one time more than 100 million acres of the United
States was home to Prairie Dog Towns. Today they occupy less than 2
million acres.
- Prairie Dogs are very important to the prairie
environment. They aerate and enrich the soils through building
tunnels. They also provide an important food source to over a 150
other animals.
- Scientists believe that the endangered Black-Footed Ferret may have been affected by the reduction in the Prairie Dog population. This Ferret eats Prairie Dogs and then takes over the town as its own home.
Our Meet the Animals section includes research from the following websites:
The Austin Zoo's website: www.austinzoo.org.
Spanish translations courtesy of the Austin Zoo.
Rolling Hills Refuge Wildlife Conservation Center http://www.rhrwildlife.com/animbot.htm
The Birmingham Zoo http://www.birminghamzoo.com/
The WWW Virtual Library: Zoos http://zoonet.home.mindspring.com/www_virtual_lib/zoos.html
Photographs in Our Meet the Animals Section from PrintMaster Platinum v8.0 software.
Research on farm animals came primarily from http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/