The Prairie Marmot that Isn’t

Photographs, words and digital art Nick Sidle

Digital art – Black-tailed Prairie Dogs, Cynomys ludovicianus

The prairie marmot is an animal of several names and even calling it the prairie marmot has now largely fallen out of use. It was also known as the prairie dog although in biological terms it is not related to dogs in any particular way, it doesn’t look much like a dog either. It does though on occasions make a barking call which some people, but very few dogs, have described as being a bit canine. The scientific name for the prairie marmot is Cynomys ludovicianus. Cynomys is a combination based on the Greek words for dog (kunos) and mouse (mus) and so from this we have the dog-mouse, an even more interesting concept. Ludovicianus is an adjective linked to the name Louis which in fact makes a bit more sense. The prairie marmot is an American species found especially in the southern state of Louisiana. Strictly, for its full name, the ‘Black-tailed Prairie Marmot’ was used, which at least doesn’t make things worse because it does have a black tail, or the ‘Common Prairie Dog’ which was also alright since there are quite a lot of them although far less now than when they got that name. In the present time this evolution of names has reached the ‘Black-tailed Prairie Dog’, the current most accepted form in use. Of course, as you must have realised from all this, the prairie marmot/black-tailed prairie dog is in fact a squirrel, it would be wouldn’t it, only a member of that family that has decided that running up and down trees is far too much like hard work and so digs tunnels underground instead. In that it is different, perhaps a good idea given all the crisis of identity over the names, no ordinary dogs or squirrels live in burrows underground. Oh, and just in case you were thinking that you were beginning to understand all this, they never really were true marmots at all, well they wouldn’t be would they.

Photograph – Black-tailed Prairie Dog, Cynomys ludovicianus

Black-tailed prairie dogs look out for each other, especially for their own groups. This is perhaps no bad thing since they don’t get along with people very well, or at least more accurately in the modern world, people don’t get on with them. They are mostly regarded as a pest and have been wiped out in much of their former territory. For example the estimated black-tailed prairie dog population in Texas in 1905 was 800 million. 65 years later this had dropped to 2.25 million. The black-tailed prairie dogs had always lived side by side fairly well with the Native Americans, however when the Europeans came things changed more than a little drastically. If the settlers regarded the prairie dogs as a pest, what they thought of the settlers doesn’t bear thinking about.

Before European settlement in America, there was a very real balance between the bison and the prairie dogs on the vast open spaces of grassland that were the prairies (at least that bit of the name is right). Although the prairie dogs like the grass and the plants, they like them a particular way. As a prairie dog there are a whole lot of things out to eat you including passing eagles overhead, passing coyotes on the ground, snakes, ferrets and more besides.

Photograph – Ferruginous Hawk, Buteo regalis

The main defence by the prairie dogs is to keep a very good lookout, and so they don’t just eat the plants for food but also chew them down so that they do not provide cover for a predator to sneak up on them or prevent them from seeing danger coming. The vegetation on the prairies also has a very dense root system which actually makes it quite difficult for the prairie dogs to dig their burrows. Here though enter their friends, the bison.

Digital art – American Bison, Bison bison

America used to have vast herds of bison which moved over the open prairies and with which the Native Americans had a very special relationship. The bison were a source of food and other needs but were also respected. As far as the prairie dogs were concerned, the bison were a great help. After a few thousand very large animals had moved over a particular patch of prairie grazing all the time, they left the grasses and plants nice and short, just the way the prairie dogs liked it. The bison though also left the soil a bit trampled so when the now very happy prairie dogs started digging their burrows more easily with the grass thinned out, they opened up the soil again and aerated it which made the grass grow once more. Everyone was happy, especially the bison when they came back the following year looking for good grazing.

Photograph – Black-tailed Prairie Dog, Cynomys ludovicianus

Then the settlers from Europe arrived. They didn’t like open land, their concept was that it should be owned, fenced in and farmed. This destroyed the life of the Native Americans and the bison. The animosity to the Native Americans by the settlers led to what looking back can only be seen as an attempt to wipe them out. Part of this was a programme of indiscriminate and mass killing of the bison to deprive the Native Americans of the animal with which their lives were so intertwined.

Digital art – American Bison, Bison bison

The settlers also brought cattle to the prairies. Cattle inside fences though don’t move on and the cycle of grazing and regeneration with the prairie dogs had been broken. At first the prairie dogs loved it. Now the grass was constantly being eaten and trampled without that annoying tendency for it to grow back and make life harder again. Prairie dog numbers soared. The cattle of the ranchers were overgrazing the prairies to death and the settlers soon realised there was a problem. Unfortunately, they didn’t see what the problem was. Instead of working out that they were letting their cattle feed too much on the land, they decided that it was the prairie dogs that were the cause of all the trouble, they had to be eating too much. So mass campaigns to kill them were launched and the numbers of prairie dogs plummeted not just back to where they had been but far far lower, in many areas they were wiped out. Now, the farmers of course had both overgrazed and non-aerated pastures which was worse but that is another story. In case you are wondering what an overgrazed and under-aerated pasture looks like, the answer in the most extreme case is simple, dust. The accusation behind the mass killing was also unfair in another way. The prairie dogs actually like to eat the weeds that the cattle won’t touch so they were of another benefit as well, they don’t really like grass that much.

Photograph – Black-tailed Prairie Dog, Cynomys ludovicianus

It is the looking out for each other that makes the prairie dogs special. They live in communities based round their burrows. These are very complicated and well engineered excavations. There are communicating tunnels, numerous places to escape to the surface or deeper down into the tunnel system if threatened, and nesting and sleeping chambers. There are also listening posts, small chambers close to where the tunnel system breaks the surface where a prairie dog can stay hidden and warm but acting as a lookout by listening for danger, or just pause to check the coast is clear before venturing outside. The prairie dogs even build an embankment of earth around the entrances to the tunnels to act as a dam against water in heavy rains. The tunnel exits are made at different levels to encourage air flow and ventilation, the tunnels are air conditioned.

Digital art – Black-tailed Prairie Dog, Cynomys ludovicianus

A whole network of burrows in one place is called a prairie dog town. In fact, what is there are a number of family groups called coteries which mostly keep to their own part of the system rather like human families live in their house in a town. The families are very close but, just like people, disputes with neighbouring groups can break out. On the surface though or when faced with any threat, the prairie dogs work as a team. At any time whilst the other prairie dogs are busy, some, often at least one in each group, will sit up on their hind legs on lookout.

Photograph – Black-tailed Prairie Dog, Cynomys ludovicianus

If they see danger, they use a shrill warning cry which is taken up by all the others to make sure everyone hears. If the danger is close or approaching, everyone dives for cover down the tunnels. When the coast is clear there is a whistling call to let everyone know and then carefully the prairie dogs emerge back above ground to get on with whatever they were doing.

With such a complex and well developed social organisation, there has to be a very good system of identification and communication. To people, most prairie dogs look alike but that could just be prejudice or ignorance. It seems though that often other prairie dogs have the same problem except with their closest family members. When two prairie dogs meet, especially on a boundary, both will drop to lie flat on the ground and crawl towards each other. They meet, touch noses, and touch mouths in a kiss. If by doing this they work out they are strangers, then either one or both retreats or there is trouble. If they are friends, then they groom each other to reinforce the relationship.

Photograph – Black-tailed Prairie Dog, Cynomys ludovicianus

A number of other animals live alongside the prairie dogs. The burrowing owl lives and builds its nest in abandoned prairie dog tunnels.

Digital art – Burrowing Owl, Athene cunicularia

The black-footed ferret is not so well-mannered in waiting for the prairie dogs to finish with their home. The ferret is in fact a savage predator which hunts the prairie dogs above and below ground.

Digital art – Black-footed Ferret, Mustela nigripes

As people killed the prairie dogs, the black-footed ferrets also suffered, so much in fact that they were on the verge of extinction.

Digital art – Black-footed Ferret, Mustela nigripes

Only a very extensive breeding programme in captivity saved them. Then there has been a programme of gradual reintroduction into their previous and native range.

Digital art – Black-footed Ferret, Mustela nigripes

Snakes also sometimes move into prairie dog tunnels. They are definitely very unwelcome visitors, especially something like a rattlesnake.

Digital art – Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox

A prairie dog cannot evict a large snake, however much it wants to, but it can do the next best thing. Snakes can’t burrow, prairie dogs are brilliant at it. The defence is to close off the section of tunnel with the snake in it and the prairie dogs use their blunt noses to push the earth down firmly so that the snake cannot break through. There are stories of prairie dogs burying snakes alive to kill them but scientific experts dispute whether this ever really happens.

Digital art – Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox

One final thought or to be more precise a last question. Perhaps we should pay far more attention to what the Native Americans called the prairie dog because it has got to make more sense than any of the English or scientific names doing the rounds, past or present, and they shared their land with the prairie dogs long before anyone from Europe arrived.

Digital art – Black-tailed Prairie Dogs, Cynomys ludovicianus

Thoughts from William F Snell Jr., Nakota Name – Walks With the Pipe, Crow Name – Brave Hawk, President Pretty Shield Foundation, Executive Director Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council:

I clicked on the Prairie Marmot article which I found to be very interesting as it brought back many memories when I was a young boy growing up on a family ranch/farm on the Fort Belknap Reservation. We have always referred to them as Prairie Dogs in which there were many of them throughout the Reservation landscape including in the Milk River Valley in northern Montana.

As a boy, I pretty much grew up alone hunting, fishing, and being a part of nature which happens in my opinion the greatest teacher of all – NATURE. Well anyway, the Milk River Valley was the home of many Lakota and GrosVentre tribal members who tried to make the best of becoming a farmers or ranchers after being placed on the reservation in the 1800’s. During the 1950’s and 1060’s many of the families struggled to make a living. My family was a successful in ranching, however income was subsidized by my mother and father working additional jobs with the Indian Health Services and the Bureau of Indian affairs.

We often shared our large garden produce for those that were struggling to make a living or even put food on the table. This gave me the opportunity to help feed many of the families by providing them with Prairie Dog meat in which they were grateful. I always gave thank to the creator for providing these little animals for those that were in need. I’ve never eaten a prairie dog but my Lakota (Assiniboine) father and my grand parents did many times.

I talked with them mimicking their chirping sounds which brought them out of their underground homes to stand tall on the mounds they build. And yes, there were predators that they had to watch out for particularly the black footed ferret, rattle snakes, coyotes, foxes, and the birds of prey.

Recently I was able to visit the Charlie Russell Wildlife Refuge which is a very large area extending for miles in all directions in the Missouri Breaks just south of the Fort Belknap Reservations and the Little Rocky Mountain in the State of Montana. As we travel the dirt roads, I notice that there were prairie dog holes for miles with no prairie dogs present. When inquiring with wildlife biologists they told me the bad news that the largest Black- Footed Ferrets in the states was wiped entirely out by a disease by “Sylvatic Plague” which also killed all the prairie dogs as well. Such a sad story which occurred just a few years ago. Apparently, the disease was introduced to North American from Asia in the late 1800’s, which is highly lethal to both prairie dogs and ferrets.

Anyway, it just jogged my memory, and I appreciate your sharing the information.