Prairie Dog Town

Vegetation of Prairie Dog Colonies and Non-Colonized Shortgrass Prairie

Black-tailed prairie dogs have declined by 98% in the past century. Due to continued declines, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the species as a candidate for listing in 2000. Prairie dogs foster both plant and animal diversity, and their continued presence is a concern in the Great Plains. We compared vegetation structure and composition of black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludov...

Prairie Dog: Cuddly Pet or Trojan Horse?

cles analyze tularemia outbreaks, and one examines the pathologic features of monkeypox in commercially traded prairie dogs. While the prairie dog–associated tularemia outbreak and the first U.S. monkeypox outbreak highlight health risks to humans of the unregulated trade of wildcaught animals, they also raise broader issues. Exotic animal import and export have altered the composition of nativ...

Electrogenic bicarbonate secretion by prairie dog gallbladder.

Pathological rates of gallbladder salt and water transport may promote the formation of cholesterol gallstones. Because prairie dogs are widely used as a model of this event, we characterized gallbladder ion transport in animals fed control chow by using electrophysiology, ion substitution, pharmacology, isotopic fluxes, impedance analysis, and molecular biology. In contrast to the electroneutr...

The Prairie Dog Ecosystems and Endangered Species

Fasting Biochemistry of Representative Spontaneous and Facultative Hibernators : The White-Tailed Prairie Dog and the Black-Tailed Prairie Dog

The white-tailed prairie dog is a spontaneous hibernator that enters an anorexic state followed by torpor in early fall. The black-tailed prairie dog is a facultative hibernator that enters torpor only when deprived offood and water in the winter. The physiological state of hibernation is similar to a Phase II euthermic fast characterized by elevated fat catabolism, increased blood ketone bodie...