40 Fun Facts About Utah Prairie Dog

Utah prairie dogs in the same family greet each other with which gesture, withheld from outsiders?

Kissing, a quick touch of mouths, is how prairie dogs in one family group interact; they also groom each other but never do either with animals from other groups.

The Utah prairie dog is a rodent, so which trait earned prairie dogs the canine half of their name?

Their bark-like call is a warning that sounds like a dog's bark. The name was in use by 1774, and one early traveler likened the animals' yelp to that of a little toy dog.

Which national park holds an annual Utah Prairie Dog Day with ranger-led viewing of its colonies?

Bryce Canyon brought Utah prairie dogs back through a reintroduction program, and visitors can watch them in the meadows along the road near the visitor center.

Despite the canine name, the burrowing Utah prairie dog belongs to which group of rodents?

Ground squirrels are the group that includes prairie dogs, marmots and chipmunks. All sit in the same family as tree-dwelling species, though prairie dogs nest below ground.

Which disease, also dangerous to people, can kill nearly every animal in a Utah prairie dog colony?

Plague in wildlife is called sylvatic plague, and it comes from the same bacterium that causes bubonic plague in people. Outbreaks can kill close to 100% of a colony.

Of the five prairie dog species, the Utah prairie dog, about a foot long, holds which size record?

The smallest prairie dog, the Utah species tops out at about 3 pounds, with males roughly a quarter bigger than females.

Unlike black-tailed prairie dogs, how do Utah prairie dogs get through long plateau winters?

They hibernate, as do the other prairie dogs with short pale-tipped tails. The two species with long dark-tipped tails stay active all winter.

A 2013 lawsuit said a noisy Utah prairie dog interrupted which kind of gathering in Cedar City?

A funeral was disrupted by a prairie dog scampering around the service and making a racket, the city claimed. The complaint said burrows were also damaging grave sites.

Because Utah prairie dogs aerate soil and feed many predators, ecologists give them which label?

Keystone species hold an ecosystem together: without Utah prairie dogs the meadows would change drastically, since rabbits and other animals shelter in the tunnels they dig.

Which eradication method, pushed by control programs from the 1920s, devastated Utah prairie dogs?

Poisoning campaigns, with unregulated shooting and disease, shrank the species' range by roughly 90% in a century. Farmers targeted the animals for eating crops.

The Utah prairie dog, found nowhere else on Earth, survives only in which corner of Utah?

Southwest Utah is the species' entire range, spread across seven counties; in 1920 it reached as far north as Nephi.

A Utah prairie dog colony, split into family territories riddled with burrows, goes by which name?

A town can hold many family territories, each with burrows 3 to 6 feet deep and several exits for a quick escape.

Which landmark US law makes it illegal to hunt the federally protected Utah prairie dog?

The Endangered Species Act covers the Utah prairie dog, so it may not be hunted, although Utah's two other prairie dog species can be.

Which parasites spread deadly disease among Utah prairie dogs, a reason visitors should keep back?

Fleas carry the bacterium Yersinia pestis between animals, so dusting burrows with pesticide is the main way wildlife managers protect colonies.

Which dark facial marking sets the Utah prairie dog apart from the other four prairie dog species?

Black eyebrows, a short dark stripe above each eye, mark the Utah prairie dog; the rest of the face has brown cheeks and a pale chin.

Utah prairie dogs seen standing upright on their hind legs beside a burrow are doing which job?

Keeping lookout is a shared duty in a colony. When a sentry spots danger it sounds a warning, and intruders may even be chased away.

Utah prairie dogs leave their burrows to feed and socialize during which part of the daily cycle?

Daytime is when Utah prairie dogs are above ground, foraging from dawn to dusk. Sunny summer days are the best time to see them.

Researchers decoding prairie dog alarm signals found they can describe which feature of a predator?

Its color, along with type, size and shape, is coded into the sounds, a finding from decades of recording work by biologist Con Slobodchikoff.

Which venomous snakes can slip into Utah prairie dog burrows, turning a refuge into a trap?

Rattlesnakes are small enough to enter the tunnels, which is why burrows have many exits. Against coyotes and birds of prey the same tunnels are a safe retreat.

Which stocky digging carnivores are top predators of Utah prairie dogs, even inside their tunnels?

Badgers top the list of the species' natural predators, yet in well-established colonies predators make little dent in overall numbers.

Which federal agency manages the Utah prairie dog's protected listing and writes its recovery plans?

The Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the Utah prairie dog since 1973, and in 2013 Cedar City landowners took the agency to court over the rules.

Landowners suing over Utah prairie dog rules in 2013 named their group to parody which organization?

PETA inspired the name People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners, a group that said protected colonies were ruining yards, sports fields and building plans.

In 1984 officials eased the Utah prairie dog's federal status from the top tier to which category?

Threatened status came with a special rule that let landowners remove a set number of animals each year, at first up to 5,000 on certain lands.

Black-tailed prairie dog families are coteries; which word names a Utah prairie dog family group?

Clan is the term, and a typical one has a dominant male, several females and their young of the past two years. Coteries are thought to be more tightly knit.

Which prairie dog, found mainly in Wyoming and Colorado, is the Utah prairie dog's closest relative?

The white-tailed prairie dog and the Utah species may once have been a single interbreeding population, later split apart by physical and ecological barriers.

Federal biologists describe the Utah prairie dog's coat as which spice shade, mixed with buff hairs?

Cinnamon to clay is the usual range, and soil-matched fur matters: the animals favor ground whose shade helps hide them from predators.

The Utah prairie dog's genus name, Cynomys, was built from Greek words with which literal meaning?

Dog mouse is the translation, from the Greek for each animal. The species name parvidens was added by zoologist J. A. Allen in 1905.

From 1972, how did Utah wildlife officers deal with Utah prairie dogs trapped on private farmland?

Relocating them began as a state transplant program in 1972; trapped animals are released on public land or on land protected under a federal agreement.

From about 95,000 in the 1920s, Utah prairie dog numbers fell to roughly what figure by the 1970s?

3,000 animals were all that remained, a loss of about 97%, and the risk of extinction earned the species federal protection in 1973.

A female Utah prairie dog can conceive during roughly how much of each spring's breeding season?

A few hours on a single day is the whole window, yet about 97% of adult females still produce a litter each year.

Biologists report that a single litter of Utah prairie dog pups often has which unusual feature?

Several fathers can sire one litter because females mate with more than one male. In black-tailed prairie dogs the resident male fathers all the pups.

About a fifth of a Utah prairie dog litter may be lost to which grim behavior by adult males?

Cannibalism by males may claim roughly 20% of pups, one reason the species breeds slowly: a female raises just one litter a year, averaging about four young.

Among the five prairie dog species, the Utah prairie dog's range lies farthest in which direction?

West is the answer: the Utah species is the westernmost member of its genus, hemmed in by mountains and deserts on three sides.

The oral vaccine made to protect prairie dogs from deadly disease uses a pox virus of which animal?

Raccoons lend their pox virus to the vaccine: US Geological Survey scientists engineered it to carry antigens of the disease so prairie dogs can be immunized by mouth.

Utah prairie dogs chewing irrigation wires reportedly cost Cedar City $12,000 a year at which site?

Its golf course needed repairs to wiring and to landscaping equipment damaged by burrows, the city said when it joined a lawsuit against federal wildlife rules.

Utah prairie dogs eat mostly grasses, flowers and seeds, but wildlife accounts add which insects?

Cicadas are eaten when available, a rare break from a diet of young leaves, flowers and seeds that supplies the protein nursing mothers need.

Next to black-tailed prairie dogs, Utah prairie dog populations show less than half as much of what?

Genetic variance is unusually low in the species, probably because chance losses of genes pile up when populations are small and isolated.

A 2017 court upheld Utah prairie dog rules on private land under which part of the Constitution?

The Commerce Clause applied, the Tenth Circuit held, even though the species lives in one state and has no market value. A lower court had ruled the other way in 2014.

The Utah prairie dog was first described from Buckskin Valley in which county, home to Cedar City?

Iron County supplied the specimens that defined the species, and a century later its largest city became the center of legal fights over colonies on private land.

After spring mating, a Utah prairie dog pregnancy lasts roughly how long before the pups are born?

About one month after mating the pups arrive, in April or May, and they spend their first five to seven weeks out of sight in the nest.