I saw my first prairie dogs on this trip as I was leaving The Devil's Tower National Monument in the northwest corner of Wyoming. They're cute little critters and are fascinating to watch.



Prairie Dogs are the most social members of the Squirrel Family and are closely related to ground squirrels, chipmunks, and marmots. In fact, they look very much like the marmots I saw at Grand Targhee shown in the photo below:
Anyway, there are five species of Prairie Dogs: black-tailed, white-tailed, Gunnison's, Mexican, and Utah...that being a threatened group. From best I can tell, what I saw were black-tailed dogs:
Before settlers came, hundreds of millions of Prairie Dogs ranged across the American west. They're highly social and live in colonies called "towns" which are interconnected underground burrows that can span up to 100 acres. From there, the colony divides into smaller groups or "wards", which are then broken down into coteries...individual family units. Kind of sounds like human living arrangements!
Prairie Dogs communicate through whistles and chirps, greeting each other by touching teeth as though kissing.
When a predator approaches, the first alert Prairie Dog gives a sharp warning call, bobs up and down in excitement, calls again and then plunges below. Interestingly, they issue different sounds to identify various predators: hawks, owls, eagles, coyotes, snakes, etc. Other sentinels farther from the danger zone take up the watch to monitor the course of the predator.
Because they eat as much as seven percent of a ranch's forage, Prairie Dog eradication programs have been underway for decades out west, but a growing number of experts argue that Prairie Dogs may actually be beneficial...that they are natural fertilizers who increase the protein content and digestibility of range-land grasses. Nonetheless, the eradication efforts that have gone on have caused the number of Prairie Dogs to rapidly decrease. More have been exterminated than remain. Some colonies are now protected though...including the one I saw.
While at The Badlands the following day I didn't see any Prairie Dogs, but I did see signs there warning about Prairie Dogs carrying the plague. It seems they're very susceptible to the bubonic plague and they acquire it from fleas infected with the bacteria. Whole Prairie Dog colonies have been wiped out by it.