They’re among the region’s most despised species, but some tribes, researchers and landowners are racing to save them ...

Prairie dogs live in underground burrows, extensive warrens of tunnels and chambers marked by many mounds of packed earth at their surface entrances. Burrows have defined nurseries, sleeping ...

But prairie dogs are in trouble. Much of their habitat has been lost to agriculture, and the southern part of their range is becoming too dry. Sterling Krank and her colleagues recently analyzed where ...

Prairie dogs' sociable nature allows them to form close-knit family groups and work cooperatively to warn of danger through a variety of barks. It's these calls that earned the prairie dog its name — ...

This article was originally published with the title “ The Social Behavior of Prairie Dogs ” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 201 No. 4 (October 1959), p. 128 doi:10.1038 ...

Its weight ranges from 1.5 to three pounds. It is typically a tan color, with a lighter underbelly and black-tipped tail. HABITAT: Like most prairie dogs, the black-tailed prefers short-grass prairie ...

Ecosystem services provided by prairie dogs include recharging groundwater, aerating soil, sequestering carbon, cycling nutrients, spreading seeds, preventing desertification, and creating fire breaks ...

Though black-footed ferrets sometimes eat squirrels, mice, and other rodents, prairie dogs are essential to their survival, making up the majority of the ferret diet. These voracious predators ...