Slide 1: "BLACK-TAILED PRAIRIE DOG". = Cynomys ludovicianus.
This species eat prairie grasses and other prairie plants including cereal crops, alfalfa and corn. It first eats away all the tall plants around its home (burrows) leaving its predators on the ground no place to hide. And, we, humans think that these "animals" are dumb??? They have been survivors for centuries. It lives in a "town" of underground burrows on the prairie. With a complex social structure, each town is divided into "wards". Before habitat loss to farming and species reduction, a single town covered several hectares. As the young grow up, the adults dig new burrows at the edge of "THEIR" towns and move to these surburbs leaving the young to the original town. Now tell me that they are not clever real estate owners!!!
