Bay Photos by Donna

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On the Sage Creek Rim Road, a fun area to see is Robert’s Prairie Dog Town, where a colony of prairie dogs live in a complex underground “town” of entrances, tunnels, sleeping chambers, storage areas, and back door escapes.

The largest ever recorded prairie dog town located in Texas encompassed a 100 mile by 250 mile area and contained an estimated 400 million prairie dogs.  That’s 25,000 square miles – an area greater than the state of West Virginia. 😲

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Just a small view of Robert’s Prairie Dog Town

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Prairie dogs are members of the squirrel family and are only found in North America.

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Prairie Dogs

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The prairie dog species found in the Badlands is the black-tailed prairie dog, the most common prairie dog of the five species.

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Prairie Dog Pups

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Prairie dogs were once a major part of the American landscape, originally ranging from Canada to Mexico.  Before 1800, it was estimated over 5 billion prairie dogs roamed the American plains.  Today, it’s estimated there’s a healthy return of 10-20 million prairie dogs roaming.  What happened?

In the 1800s, homesteading settlers viewed prairie dogs as disease carriers and grazing area destroyers for their cattle.  We now know these assumptions to be untrue.  Regarded as vermin, settlers killed prairie dogs in large quantities with poison and by recreational shooting.  How sad.

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Prairie dog on the look-out
(“Now where did those kids go?”)

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Prairie dogs are about 14-17 inches long and weigh 1-3 pounds.  They eat most all species of plants with an occasional insect.

Prairie dogs serve as a keystone species so their survival is important to many other species of wildlife.  That includes them being a major prey for a large array of predators that include golden eagles, hawks, fox, coyotes, badgers, and the endangered black-footed ferrets.

Fortunately, prairie dogs can run up to 35 mph at short distances to one of their many entrances for a hopeful escape.

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Prairie Dog nibbling grasses

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In addition, prairie dogs communicate to each other what predator is the threat!

Scientists believe that prairie dogs have one of the most complex animal languages ever decoded.  The prairie dog’s “bark” is a simple squeak or yip, but it means much more to a prairie dog’s ear.

On a basic level, prairie dogs can signal different threats.  For example, they can communicate the difference between a coyote and a domestic dog.  In fact, scientists think that prairie dogs may have developed such complex language from a need to respond to a diverse array of predators, all with different hunting strategies.

In addition to identifying specific threats, prairie dogs can further communicate size, shape, color, and speed.  A prairie dog can say so much more than, “A human is approaching!”  They can get as specific as, “A tall human in a blue shirt is approaching rapidly!”

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Prairie Dogs

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And for sure, they are so darn adorably cute too!

More wildlife to come from Badlands National Park……the fast pronghorn!

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