Nest predation is the principal cause of mortaliv for many grassland birds. Predation rates may be higher on prairie dog colonies because they may have less available nesting cover and may increase predator abundance. We compared 14-day nest predation rates for 1,764 artificial nests on 102 black-tailed prairie dog (Cynovnys ludovicianus) colonies and their paired off-colony sites (similar habi...

OBJECTIVE To describe a cluster of human monkeypox cases associated with exposure to ill prairie dogs in a home child care. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS We identified all persons exposed to 2 pet prairie dogs in County A, Indiana; performed active surveillance for symptomatic monkeypox infection; and evaluated the types of exposure that may have resulted in infection. For children who attend...

The prairie mole cricket (Gryllotalpa major Saussure) is a rare orthopteran insect of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem of the south central USA. Populations are known to currently occupy fragmented prairie sites in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri, including The Nature Conservancy's Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in north central Oklahoma. Prairie mole cricket populations were surveyed at thi...

The tree island hammock communities in the Florida Everglades provide one of many examples of self-organized wetland landscape. However, little is understood about why these elevated tree island communities have higher nutrient concentration than the surrounding freshwater marshes. Here we used stable isotopes and elemental analysis to compare dry season water limitation and soil and foliar nut...

Oxytocin receptors in the nucleus accumbens have been implicated in the regulation of alloparental behavior and pair bond formation in the socially monogamous prairie vole. Oxytocin receptor density in the nucleus accumbens is positively correlated with alloparenting in juvenile and adult female prairie voles, and oxytocin receptor antagonist infused into the nucleus accumbens blocks this behav...

Restoration ecology had its genesis in the 1930s as Midwestern ecologists came to the realization that nearly all the tallgrass prairie in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin had been converted to agricultural or urban land uses (Curtis and Greene 1949, Critical Trends Assessment Project 1994, Smith 1998). While calls for preservation of remaining prairie in Iowa began by 1919 (Smith 1998), the pione...

Journal of Environmental Hydrology Volume 19 Paper 14 May 2011 1 Restoration of large tracts of cropland to tallgrass prairie in north-central USA suggests that conversion will reduce runoff, infiltration, and groundwater recharge. In northwestern Minnesota, U.S.A., physically similar, adjacent native prairie (control) and cultivated sites were instrumented with time-domain reflectometry probes...

Plague is an exotic vector-borne disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis that causes mortality rates approaching 100% in black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus). We mapped the perimeter of the active portions of black-tailed prairie dog colonies annually between 1999 and 2005 at four prairie dog colony complexes in areas with a history of plague, as well as at two complexes tha...

Some populations of western burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) have declined in recent decades. To design and implement effective recovery efforts, we need a better understanding of how distribution and demographic traits are influenced by habitat quality. To this end, we measured spatial patterns of burrowing owl breeding habitat selection within black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys lud...

Elemental hyperaccumulation in plants is hypothesized to represent a plant defense mechanism. The objective of this study was to determine whether selenium (Se) hyperaccumulation offers plants long-term protection from the black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus). Prairie dogs are a keystone species. The hyperaccumulator Stanleya pinnata (prince's plume) co-occurs with prairie dogs in se...