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A prairie dog town may contain 15–26 family groups, [20] with subgroups within a town, called "wards", which are separated by a physical barrier. Family groups exist within these wards. Most prairie dog family groups are made up of one adult breeding male, two or three adult females, and one or two male offspring and one or two female offspring.
Black-tailed prairie dogs have sensory adaptions for avoiding predators. Black-tailed prairie dogs have very sensitive hearing at low frequencies that allows them to detect predators early, especially while in their burrows. Black-tailed prairie dog hearing can range from 29 Hz to 26 kHz, and can hear as low as 4 Hz. [35]
Prairie dogs have many predators including black-footed ferrets, hawks, foxes, weasels, bobcats, and coyotes. Because of this, the little rodents must be constantly on watch.
Because black-tailed prairie dogs do not hibernate, little seasonal change in black-footed ferret diet is necessary. [7] [21] Skeletons of black-footed ferret (left) and prairie dog (right) articulated to show the predator-prey relationship between the two. (Museum of Osteology)
Basically, the prairie dog town is surrounded by either homes or highways on all sides. Last year, the Yukon Progress reported that the animals have been venturing onto the highway more often.
Rarely does the prairie dog capture and kill the squirrel, but when it does, it leaves the squirrel for avian predators, as the prairie dog is an herbivore. Female white-tailed prairie dogs who killed squirrels had increased litter sizes, but the higher her body count, the lower her chances of surviving each subsequent attack. [ 6 ]
Gunnison's prairie dogs are 12 to 14 inches (30 to 36 cm) in length and have tails that measure 1.25 to 2.25 inches (3.2 to 5.7 cm). This species weighs from 1.5 to 2.5 lb (0.68 to 1.13 kg). On average, males are larger in size than females. Gunnison's prairie dogs have 22 teeth, and five pairs of mammary glands. [2]
Prairie dogs and ground squirrels also act as a buffer between owls and their predators, since they become the target prey rather than the owls. [ 40 ] [ 44 ] Another benefit prairie dogs in particular provide burrowing owls takes the form of their alarm calls, which alert burrowing owls if predators are nearby, therefore giving the owls ample ...