Family of black tailed prairie dogs A family of black-tailed prairie dogs practices their vigilance from their colony in Highlands Ranch.

Morgan E. Heim

Denver’s Street-Smart Prairie Dogs

Researchers explore why members of one species are thriving in urban areas while rural populations dwindle

  • By Morgan E. Heim
  • Smithsonian.com, October 02, 2009

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    Prairie dogs start barking bloody murder and scramble for their burrows as a hawk glides fast and low over the colony. The emergency broadcast gives the rotund fur balls ample warning. For the raptor, it’s wishful thinking.

    “Whoa! Now would you look at that,” says Kevin Crooks, a biologist at Colorado State University. Crooks, tall and wiry with an easy grin, points to the north. A second raptor sweeps lazy circles under the morning sun, and a third perches atop a fake tree trunk that was erected here to attract prairie-dog-eating birds.

    We’re standing on a narrow strip of prairie running through the community of Highlands Ranch just south of Denver. Here, tucked among a high school football field, a paved running trail and rows of tidy, two-story cookie-cutter houses, lives a colony of about 30 black-tailed prairie dogs.

    Danger averted, the prairie dogs once again peek from their burrows and start scampering about, touching noses in greeting and browsing on grasses and flowers. But something’s awry. Wooden stakes mark several mounds, and many of the burrow openings are masked by chicken wire. The stakes are numbered, and by all appearances, so are the prairie dogs’ days in this section of Highlands Ranch.

    The stakes, it turns out, are part of a passive relocation project run by the Douglas County Citizens for Wildlife, and an attempt to save the colony. These prairie dogs verge on taking up residence in people’s yards, and the hope is that by blocking the burrows the animals will move away from houses and into undeveloped land where they can continue to go about their prairie dog lives.

    If the critters fail to get the message, Highlands Ranch will resort to lethal control, which involves either fumigating the colonies or capturing and sending prairie dogs to raptor and black-footed ferret recovery programs, where they will be used as food. This neighborhood illustrates the challenge of trying to balance human communities with prairie dog ones, and it’s a coexistence that has pitted many Westerners against the diggers, and each other, for decades.

    Black-tailed prairie dogs are vanishing from the West. In the past 200 years, their numbers have dwindled to just 2 percent of their estimated historic population because of introduced plague, recreational shooting and development. Colonies “are just blinking out because of development,” says Crooks. “There’s no other word for it. Prairie dogs have been exterminated over vast ranges of their habitat.” The black-tailed prairie dog is currently being considered for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. It would be the third of five prairie dog species in the United States, after the Mexican and Utah prairie dogs, to be listed.

    When one thinks of potential endangered species, it’s not common to look in the backyard, never mind territories that include a lot of traffic, buildings and city slickers. But black-tailed prairie dogs are bucking trends and taking advantage of urban green spaces—rather successfully. In places like Denver and Boulder, it’s nearly impossible to walk, bicycle or drive without tripping over or flattening one of these vocal critters.

    This unusual existence brings with it an unusual ecology, which until now has remained largely mysterious. Previous research on prairie dogs stuck mostly to rural colonies, but thanks to the curiosity of one of Crooks’ former graduate students, Seth Magle, researchers are learning about the urban variety. “It’s very important for a number of reasons,” says Magle. “Urban areas are expanding. Protected areas are not.”

    Magle started studying the secret lives of urban prairie dogs in 2002. He mapped their communities in Denver and found unexpected behaviors. Perhaps most startling of all was the robustness of this wildlife in a limited environment. Magle discovered that city prairie dogs lived in communities on average five times more crowded than rural colonies. Contrary to the expectation that confined and rapidly growing wildlife populations would crash because of population pressures like disease or competition for food, Magle found that prairie dogs seemed to get along pretty well in tight quarters.

    Prairie dogs start barking bloody murder and scramble for their burrows as a hawk glides fast and low over the colony. The emergency broadcast gives the rotund fur balls ample warning. For the raptor, it’s wishful thinking.

    “Whoa! Now would you look at that,” says Kevin Crooks, a biologist at Colorado State University. Crooks, tall and wiry with an easy grin, points to the north. A second raptor sweeps lazy circles under the morning sun, and a third perches atop a fake tree trunk that was erected here to attract prairie-dog-eating birds.

    We’re standing on a narrow strip of prairie running through the community of Highlands Ranch just south of Denver. Here, tucked among a high school football field, a paved running trail and rows of tidy, two-story cookie-cutter houses, lives a colony of about 30 black-tailed prairie dogs.

    Danger averted, the prairie dogs once again peek from their burrows and start scampering about, touching noses in greeting and browsing on grasses and flowers. But something’s awry. Wooden stakes mark several mounds, and many of the burrow openings are masked by chicken wire. The stakes are numbered, and by all appearances, so are the prairie dogs’ days in this section of Highlands Ranch.

    The stakes, it turns out, are part of a passive relocation project run by the Douglas County Citizens for Wildlife, and an attempt to save the colony. These prairie dogs verge on taking up residence in people’s yards, and the hope is that by blocking the burrows the animals will move away from houses and into undeveloped land where they can continue to go about their prairie dog lives.

    If the critters fail to get the message, Highlands Ranch will resort to lethal control, which involves either fumigating the colonies or capturing and sending prairie dogs to raptor and black-footed ferret recovery programs, where they will be used as food. This neighborhood illustrates the challenge of trying to balance human communities with prairie dog ones, and it’s a coexistence that has pitted many Westerners against the diggers, and each other, for decades.

    Black-tailed prairie dogs are vanishing from the West. In the past 200 years, their numbers have dwindled to just 2 percent of their estimated historic population because of introduced plague, recreational shooting and development. Colonies “are just blinking out because of development,” says Crooks. “There’s no other word for it. Prairie dogs have been exterminated over vast ranges of their habitat.” The black-tailed prairie dog is currently being considered for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. It would be the third of five prairie dog species in the United States, after the Mexican and Utah prairie dogs, to be listed.

    When one thinks of potential endangered species, it’s not common to look in the backyard, never mind territories that include a lot of traffic, buildings and city slickers. But black-tailed prairie dogs are bucking trends and taking advantage of urban green spaces—rather successfully. In places like Denver and Boulder, it’s nearly impossible to walk, bicycle or drive without tripping over or flattening one of these vocal critters.

    This unusual existence brings with it an unusual ecology, which until now has remained largely mysterious. Previous research on prairie dogs stuck mostly to rural colonies, but thanks to the curiosity of one of Crooks’ former graduate students, Seth Magle, researchers are learning about the urban variety. “It’s very important for a number of reasons,” says Magle. “Urban areas are expanding. Protected areas are not.”

    Magle started studying the secret lives of urban prairie dogs in 2002. He mapped their communities in Denver and found unexpected behaviors. Perhaps most startling of all was the robustness of this wildlife in a limited environment. Magle discovered that city prairie dogs lived in communities on average five times more crowded than rural colonies. Contrary to the expectation that confined and rapidly growing wildlife populations would crash because of population pressures like disease or competition for food, Magle found that prairie dogs seemed to get along pretty well in tight quarters.

    Part of the reason they are thriving is that, in a city, they can spend more time chowing down and less time watching for predators. Urban prairie dogs deal with fewer coyotes and hawks than their rural counterparts, Magle said. They are generalists, munching away on whatever plants grow around their colony. And Magle observed that the city prairie dogs have some street-smarts. They climb shrubs and small trees to grub on leaves, and even swim—behaviors that were previously unknown for black-tailed prairie dogs.

    Magle wondered whether day-to-day interactions with humans might make prairie dogs take kindly to people. He tried, a lot, to see if they’d get used to him. The typical response of a prairie dog colony to a suspicious stranger is for a few sentinels to send out a series of alarm barks, signaling the others to dive for cover. Instead of getting comfortable with Magle, or anyone else helping with the study, the prairie dogs skipped the barking and went straight to the run-for-cover phase. Not even bribery seems to work.

    Magle recalls one woman who repeatedly stopped near the same colony at the same time of day and tossed a bag of mixed salad out her car window. “I thought that was such a strange human behavior,” says Magle. Sure, the prairie dogs weren’t ones to turn down a free meal, and they would eventually eat the greens, but they never came to anticipate her arrival or hang out when she was around, he says. “They’re not like squirrels.”

    These interactions highlight the conflicted nature of the human-prairie dog relationship. People seem to think of prairie dogs as either a beloved example of backyard nature or a plague-ridden, land-destroying blight. Prairie dogs have earned the unsavory reputation from their tendency to chew down grass and create dusty, pock-marked landscapes in pastures, cropland and backyards. Prairie dog colonies do sometimes suffer plague outbreaks, and fears of the illness stem from the potential for plague-infected fleas to hitch a ride on prairie dogs and jump to people. Many mammals, though, from mouse to housecat, could pass on the fleas, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only about 10 to 20 people a year nationwide get the plague, and fatalities are rare.

    For those worried that contact with urban prairie dogs will transmit plague, Magle has some encouraging news. In five years of field research, not once did he encounter a plague outbreak in his prairie dogs. The urban colonies' isolation helps prevent the spread of the disease because they tend not to catch it from their rural cousins or even other urban colonies, says Magle. That’s not to suggest anyone start cuddling with the animals anytime soon.

    Regardless, mention prairie dogs to a Westerner, and you’ll either spark a debate about which gun is best to shoot them with or incite pleas to protect them. Throughout his study, Magle fended off people who thought he was killing the prairie dogs and those who were upset because he wasn’t.

    Magle’s research inspired conservation social scientists Tara Teel and Brad Milley, both at Colorado State University at the time, to survey people’s opinions about living with prairie dogs. Almost 20 percent of people surveyed in the area south of Denver just plain wanted prairie dogs dead. About 40 percent wanted them protected, and another 40 percent were okay with lethal control if the prairie dogs raised the risk of plague or property damage. “People’s reactions to prairie dog management are often values-based and emotional,” says Teel. “But we need to better understand what the public thinks about these issues and how to anticipate and address conflict.”

    Listing black-tailed prairie dogs under the Endangered Species Act would create unprecedented challenges. Imagine being told you can’t develop an empty inner-city lot because prairie dogs live there, or being a wildlife manager tasked with keeping an eye on daily interactions between wildlife and people in a metropolitan area like Denver, or worrying about what’ll happen if you run over a prairie dog on the way to the grocery store. Things like the Safe Harbor Agreement—an arrangement with the federal government that rewards private land owners for fostering recovery of endangered species on their land—could help, but wouldn’t be a complete answer. People need to consider the difficulties that would come with listing, says Magle. “It would be different from the usual thinking of setting up nature preserves.”

    But Magle tries to look at the positive side. Urban prairie dogs offer residents nature education within city limits. If protected, prairie dogs could help preserve pockets of prairie even as sprawl overtakes many areas in the West. And these islands of habitat could act as refuges from the plague, keeping some prairie dogs alive if an outbreak strikes rural populations.

    Crooks and I walk through another colony in south Denver. This one is bordered by Interstate 225, a strip of gas stations and an apartment complex advertising immediate move-ins. The prairie dogs live in a ditch full of invasive weeds. But this colony is being protected from future development as a natural area managed by the Denver Water Board. With each step we take, a prairie dog announces our presence with its metronomic yap and at least a dozen others send suspicious sidelong stares from the safety of their burrows. I feel silly, like I need to apologize for interrupting their day. “It’s kind of crazy, huh?” says Crooks. “It’s also kind of encouraging that prairie dogs can exist in these highly urbanized areas. We have to savor small victories.”


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    Comments

    It gives me hope that these animals can adapt to suburbia. There really isn't that much wildlife in cities and suburbs, hopefully this will help remind people of what was once here before it was bulldozed. Thanks Morgan, and thanks Smithsonian!

    Posted by Philipp on October 19,2009 | 04:39PM

    Very nice article brings back lots of memories I lived in plains Kansas where we had many prairie dogs joined the navy when I turned 17 yrs old in July 1943 was in the south pacific on a Destroyer Trathen DD530 32 months got discharged when my kitty cruise was up after the war was over went back home for two months came back to San Diego have been here since was called in for 2yrs during the Korea war earned 8 battle stars ww2 1 star for Korea A kitty cruise is when your Mom&Dad have to sign for you to get in the service I am 83yrs old now thanks Forrest Ratliff

    Posted by Forrest Leon Ratliff on October 22,2009 | 09:20AM

    Loved the article on the shorebirds. In the article it talked a bit about the horseshoe crab and cited a book called 'Crab Wars' which I obtained and read. It made me realize how important the horseshoe crab is and would dearly love to see you do an article on the horseshoe crab not only because of the needed sustenance it provides for the shorebirds but also for its contribution to the well-being of mankind from a medical perspective.
    L. Francis

    Posted by Lorie Francis on October 22,2009 | 10:32AM

    I would be interested in seeing what the response would be for those prairie dogs that live in the less affluent areas of Denver, such as northeast Aurora. There is a colony that has taken up residence where I work, and seem to be doing quite well. My question is, what will happen to them if the builing manager decides to "remove" them?

    Posted by Joy Saly on October 22,2009 | 05:32PM

    The Prairie Dogs were there first---Relocate the people!

    Posted by Jerry Sharp on October 24,2009 | 12:47PM

    Prairie Dogs score a 12 on the 0-10 "cuteness scale" so they're great fun to watch.

    Unfortunately, they're also incredibly destructive. I've seen burrows dug through asphalt runways on airports. Their burrows can make open spaces unusable for human hikers or horses. I've seen concrete paving collapse when Prairie Dogs burrowed beneath streets.

    Apparently, they can't be corralled or stopped from moving into new areas. "Controlling" them essentially means killing them which is very sad for such an attractive animal.

    We need to find a way for these little guys to thrive in remote areas far from urban settings.

    Posted by Bill on October 25,2009 | 01:56PM

    I used to watch these pairie dogs in the morning while walking on my way to work from the bus I remember seeing the developement being built and worrying about these little guys future That was two years ago, glad to see their still there making a go off it!! :)

    Posted by meridee albrecht on October 27,2009 | 10:26AM

    Bill,

    I live in Colorado and see prairie dogs everywhere, and have never seen any destruction to asphalt (if you can name a place I would like to see it). Also I have spent alot of time in Wyoming where there are plenty of prairie dogs AND horses. The horses don't seem to have a problem, (they run around like crazy and never trip on anything,)(I also traverse the land where the dogs live and haven't had any trouble) Furthermore the burrows provide habitat for other animals.

    I am not trying to disrespect you, I am just wondering on what grounds are you making these claims.

    Thanks

    Posted by Philipp Wickey on October 28,2009 | 06:05AM

    I have read that there is a new option for humane prairie dog control: a truck equipped with a vacuum system and large container, similar to the common vacuum street sweepers and catch-basin cleaners.

    The hose is stuck into a burrow, and the prairie dogs are sucked out alive and deposited safely into the container (which presumably has been filled partway with wood chips or other soft material). They don't pass through the suction fan on the way in. After a burrow has been vacuumed, the truck is driven to a preserve area and the critters are released to go dig new burrows and live normal lives (plus or minus the bizarre experience of being vacuumed up).

    Seems to me this could be a viable solution for property owners who want to be rid of their prairie dogs but who also recognize them as an at-risk species. And the great benefit to property owners is that it's fast and thorough, unlike poisons and shooting.

    Posted by g.smith on October 28,2009 | 08:43AM

    Chief Seattle:

    How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us.

    What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of the spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.

    Posted by P Hinrichs on October 31,2009 | 08:15PM

    It the balck tailed prairie dog is nearing endangerment, there has to ba another option besides 'lethal control'...why not physically relocate the colony if they won't relocate themselves? don't kill the little rascals, particularly when you took their homes - they were here first(history of America, isn't it?)

    Posted by Jack Erman on November 4,2009 | 11:45AM

    Anyone who reads this article should read the fascinating and moving section on prairie dogs in Terry Tempestt Williams' wonderful book, "Finding Beauty in a Broken World."

    Posted by lee kik on November 4,2009 | 03:17PM

    I love prairie dogs too; they live on the edges of many roads where I drive. But I don't agree that they aren't like squirrels. About 15 years ago I was camping at Eleven Mile Canyon. I was sitting on the ground eating some kind of snack. A prairie dog baby came walking very close and I threw him a morsel. (Bad thing--I know, but it was SO CUTE.) Within 30 seconds I looked up and there were prairie dogs running toward me from everywhere. After a minute it got a bit scary and I had to jump up from the ground.

    Posted by Connie Williams, Denver on November 4,2009 | 04:30PM

    Will it ever end? People travel around, find a beautiful pristine area, fall in love with it and decide to move there. Then they start wanting all the things they had at their previous residence, and when they succeed in getting it fixed up to suit them. They wonder why they moved there to begin with because it is no longer the beautiful, pristine place they fell in love with any longer.
    So they go lookin for another place to ruin.
    IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE PRAIRIE DOGS, MOVE OUT AND LET THEM HAVE THEIR HOMES AGAIN. THEY WERE THERE FIRST.

    Posted by Billie Hatz on November 5,2009 | 11:19AM

    I totally agree with the incredible foresight of Chief Seattle and with the comment by Jerry Sharp. We are the problem not all the other creatures who share this earth with us. Our population has run amuck because we can't control ourselves and no one wants to talk about human overpopulation anymore. Instead of worrying about how to control prairie dogs, concentrate on how humans who are now 7 billion individuals, should be stopped from reproducing. It makes me irate to hear people say we need to control other species when we can't even control our own!!!!! (And no I have no children because I CHOSE not to)

    Posted by janet herbruck on November 5,2009 | 12:18PM

    1. Prarie Dog endangered? Drive few miles E. of Denver and stop by any open field fallow for a year or 3. Those little guys will let you know they are definitely out there in numbers. I suspect that they may have been decimated in urban areas; much less so elsewhere. Most people just don't get out there so are not aware. Think urban places and the mountains are the world.

    2. Horses step in the holes and break legs. Mostly when being ridden in chase of loose cattle. Only choice it to put horse down. Dogs don't seem so cute then. Just talk to a few High Plains ranchers - it does happen.

    3. Article in recent National Wildlife Federation newsletter talks about how wrong we have been in under estimating "endangered species" populations. These folks aren't NRA weirdos looking to justify killing. You've got to be skeptical about population estimates.

    4. But they can be cute ...even if a pain in the grass.

    Posted by J Sidinger on November 5,2009 | 12:40PM

    "NRA weirdos"? How rude.

    Posted by Dan Jackson on November 6,2009 | 08:04AM

    The idea that Black tailed prarie dogs are endangered is absurd. As this article shows and a drive through rural areas of Colorado, Wyoming & Montana alone will show these numbers are very high. I often joke there are more praire dogs in Wyoming than Humans. The issue at hand here is that some areas of the west were development is high (California) the Praire dogs suffer. Thus focus the issue were it is relevent. The second issue is that Enviromental groups use the endangered speices act as a tool in their current land war on western states. Half the land in many western states is owned by the Federal Government. The NRDC and many other enviromental groups know that if they can tie endangered spieces to these areas then they can stop all activities on these lands. Motorized recreation, Cattle Grazing, oil and gas development, mining, etc. This is widely unpopular in many rural areas who rely on these lands for the local economy. Contrary to popular belief the praire dogs have thrived in these areas.

    Posted by S Dunham on November 7,2009 | 10:35AM

    J Sidinger and S Dunham,

    1. The p dogs in WY are different than the ones in CO. Also you cannot deny that if you put up a 50,000 sq ft parking lot or build thousands of Mcmansions that it doesn't affect the environment/habitat

    2. Have you seen how many wild horses run/stampede around in WY? I have yet to see one trip in a (highly visible) p dog burrow. Also I have spoken to friends/ranchers and haven't heard a complaint yet.

    3. Finally the story is about the dogs adapting.

    Posted by Philipp Wickey on November 7,2009 | 02:56PM

    Prairie dogs - cute nuisances. My favorites are groundhogs - I'll always remember the group I encountered on the Going To The Sun highway in Glacier 30 years ago.

    Don't know why it's a surprise that fauna are successfully coexisting in suburban and urban areas. The falcons see no particular difference between nesting on cliffs or city hi-rises. And, there's lots of fast food on the streets of NYC. And, bears don't mind taking a dip in your pool, not to mention the gators.

    Use common sense. Stay away from the bears, the gators, the coyotes, the wolverines, the moose, etc, etc. You know, the things that might eat you. Otherwise, Rabies is the real threat.

    Posted by cme on November 7,2009 | 05:31PM

    I`m presently living in Japan and the zoos here have prairie dogs in them. The Japanese find them to be very cute and funny. They also have raccoons in the zoos here.

    Posted by Nadine on November 7,2009 | 09:29PM

    This is a tale of misfortune (and lies) that keeps getting handed down, that horses are being put down because their legs are broken due to prairie dog tunnels. Its a myth, one told eagerly by those whose desire to rid themselves of this remarkable and social creature exceeds their sense of morality. It DOES NOT HAPPEN. Its a story heard and then told and retold again and again, just as the concrete/pavement destroying tales. Rumors spread fast and wild so that man can continue to capitalize on "fun hunts" where bucktoothed (in my mind) bear-swilling good old boys take to the fields with their armaments and ammunition in another of man's senseless and brutal ventures, all in the name of "fun". I've heard these hunters describe the rush they get when they get a direct hit, all the commotion and pain that precedes the end effect, another life snuffed out. MAN IS THE PROBLEM, we continue to encroach on nature as it has existed for untold time, its an "inconvenience" to our lives so we kill it, stomp it out, and destroy it. I suppose the earliest example would be the history of the majestic buffalo heard early in our nations history. Hunted to near extinction. We are an arrogant lot, we see, we want, we take. It makes me sad for humanity, whatever impedes our progress is soon gone but we rob ourselves in the process. We don't seem to value life from its earliest inception and so why should we care about the lowly prairie dog. Perhaps because we are humans, capable of emotion and integrity? I wish so.

    Posted by Anne Robertson on November 8,2009 | 12:19AM

    I happen to have a prairie dog that was born in captivity and is now seven years old. Long story as to how he came to me.

    One of his behaviors I noticed has been to understand time and routine. He is very aware of who I am, who my Springer Spaniel is, and no one else. He knows when it is play time, feeding time, and even changes in the weather.

    He can be very odd, and very smart at the same time. He has been a fascinating animal to observe over the years.

    Posted by R. Smith on November 9,2009 | 06:52AM

    1. I apologize for the remark about "NRA Weirdos". I was trying to be ironic and it did not come through well.

    2. Wild and pastured horses have sense not to step in holes; but being ridden in persuit of cattle is a different issue. Not everyday, mind you, but it does happen.

    3. I did some research about the Black-tailed dog and it turns out that their habitat is still wide and they are among the most prolific of all dog species. Their habitat has decreased but, with over 1.8M acres of habitat through out the high plains, they have been removed from the Endagered Species list.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-tailed_Prairie_Dog
    http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/mammals/mammals/prairie.htm

    4. Look, I know there are those of you out there who feel, like A. Robertson above, that at almost all we do is bad. You are distressingly correct in that we have not been the conservators we should be; but let's not devalue the legit. alarms for truly endangered species by crying "Endangered" just because we don't like what we see in our immediate neighborhood. Final post, thanks.

    Posted by J Sidinger on November 9,2009 | 12:07PM

    J Sidinger,

    3.
    You are correct that the BT P-dog has a wide habitat(even into WY).
    But I see the development that happens in CO and it reminds of So. Cal. Good land turned into poorly designed residential and commercial space, while at the same time there is so much previously developed land that sits empty that could be used.
    And I just think about the animals that used to be here and that I now have to drive 5 hours to WY. to see. Maybe it's just everything that is endangered?

    Posted by Philipp W on November 9,2009 | 08:41PM

    I think that there needs to be a plan of action with how to deal with these suburban prairie dogs. There is no doubt in my mind that if people don't take action to get these endangered species to a more secure environment, their numbers will continue to decline. This should be a call to action for the citizens of Denver that want to find a solution instead of being part of the problem.

    Posted by Kent K on November 12,2009 | 08:31AM

    Is there any concern about the spread of disease as a result of prairie dog populations? We control other populations of small animals (rats, etc.) partly for that reason. Humans and prairie dogs do not have a history of close-quarters association. This is a new situation, and consequences cannot be projected from past experience with this species.

    Posted by Linda S on November 20,2009 | 06:48AM

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