Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

White-tailed prairie dogs, like all prairie dogs, are found only in North Amer­ica. White-tailed prairie dog colonies are found in Wyoming, north­west Col­orado, north­east­ern Utah, and south cen­tral Mon­tana. They once oc­curred more widely, but erad­i­ca­tion ef­forts have shrunk their range. White-tailed prairie dogs thrive in dry, high al­ti­tude areas. (Cen­ter for Na­tive Ecosys­tems, 2006; Mon­tana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, 2008; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice, 2004)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

White-tailed prairie dogs are nor­mally found any­where from 5000 to 10,000 ft above sea level. They usu­ally oc­cupy areas that are higher in el­e­va­tion than other prairie dog species, such as black-tailed prairie dogs (Cyno­mys lu­dovi­cianus). Their habi­tat is dry, desert grass­lands and shrub­lands. Sage is es­pe­cially im­por­tant as a form of cover. (Tile­ston and Lech­leit­ner, 1966)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• desert or dune
• savanna or grassland

• Range elevation

  1500 to 3000 m

  4921.26 to 9842.52 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

White-tailed prairie dogs are small prairie dogs, with males slightly larger than fe­males. The fur is light brown with a black­ish-brown patch above and below each eye. The char­ac­ter­is­tic that dis­tin­guishes them most eas­ily from other prairie dogs is their white-tipped tail, but habi­tat type also dis­tin­guishes species. Head and body length in adult males is be­tween 342 and 399 mm in length. Fe­males range from 315 to 375 mm. Males weigh 750 to 1700 g and fe­males from 675 to 1200 g. Fe­males weigh much less dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son, but gain weight dur­ing preg­nancy and early lac­ta­tion which is nor­mally dur­ing late March and April. After lac­ta­tion they lose much of their weight, gain­ing it steadily back through­out the sum­mer until they be­come in­ac­tive in the fall. White-tailed prairie dogs pups weigh be­tween 100 and 150 g when they first emerge from their bur­rows, which is about a month after they are born. They gain weight through­out the sum­mer as well, until they enter hi­ber­na­tion in the fall. (Tile­ston and Lech­leit­ner, 1966)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• heterothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger

• Range mass

  675 to 1700 g

  23.79 to 59.91 oz

• Average mass

  1139 g

  40.14 oz

• Range length

  315 to 399 mm

  12.40 to 15.71 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

White-tailed prairie dogs mate after they emerge from hi­ber­na­tion in mid to late March. Usu­ally a male will ap­proach a fe­male from the rear and mount her. Some­times males in­di­cate he wants to mate by thrust­ing his snout into the gen­i­tal re­gion of a fe­male and lift­ing her tail. Mounts can last for a few sec­onds or as long as two min­utes, dur­ing which time he will rub or stroke the fe­male with his fore-limbs. Often the fe­male will roll over to stop the mat­ing and fe­males have been known to at­tack males be­tween mount­ings, push­ing them back or bit­ing them. Cop­u­la­tion oc­curs in the open, close to bur­row en­trances. As a re­sult, other males often in­ter­rupt mat­ing. (Er­pino, 1968)

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous)

Breed­ing gen­er­ally oc­curs after fe­males emerge from hi­ber­na­tion in late March and early April. Ges­ta­tion lasts about 30 days, off­spring are born dur­ing late April and early May. New­born young don't leave their bur­rows for 5 to 7 weeks, ap­pear­ing in early June. A prairie dog lit­ter av­er­ages 5 young, but can be as few as 2 or as many as 8. White tailed prairie dogs have one lit­ter an­nu­ally and begin breed­ing at 1 year old. Fe­males nurse and care for the pups. Ag­gres­sion from adult males to pups has been ob­served in pop­u­la­tions but is not com­mon. (Tile­ston and Lech­leit­ner, 1966)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  White tailed prairie dogs breed once a year.

• Breeding season

  Breeding season occurs when females emerge from hibernation during late March and Early June.

• Range number of offspring

  2 to 8

• Average gestation period

  30 days

• Range weaning age

  4 to 5 weeks

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  1 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  1 years

In white-tailed prairie dogs fe­males are the pri­mary care­tak­ers of their off­spring. After birth young are nursed for 4 to 5 weeks until they are able to emerge from the bur­rows. Males do not par­tic­i­pate in the care of their off­spring. After a pup emerges from the bur­row for the first time, it is rel­a­tively in­de­pen­dent. Dur­ing the morn­ings, fe­males are the first ones out of the bur­row and give warn­ing calls if there are preda­tors nearby. This is one of the only ways fe­males pro­tect their young after pups emerge from the bur­row. (Tile­ston and Lech­leit­ner, 1966)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Like many wild an­i­mals, it is dif­fi­cult to es­ti­mate the lifes­pan of white-tailed prairie dogs. Pre­da­tion by a myr­iad of dif­fer­ent an­i­mals and the hunt­ing of prairie dogs by hu­mans for sport re­sults in high mor­tal­ity rates. Among pups there is about a 40% mor­tal­ity rate. (Tile­ston and Lech­leit­ner, 1966)

Be­hav­ior

White-tailed prairie dogs are di­ur­nal. Like many prairie dog species, they are rarely ac­tive out­side of their bur­rows after sun­set or be­fore sun­rise. Though it is not true of all species of prairie dog, C. leu­cu­rus is in­ac­tive dur­ing the win­ter. They mate and give birth in early spring and spend the rest of the spring, sum­mer, and fall feed­ing. (Camp­bell and Clark, 1981; Tile­ston and Lech­leit­ner, 1966)

At sun­rise white-tailed prairie dogs begin to emerge from their bur­rows. The adults, usu­ally fe­males, come out first to check for preda­tors, and then pups ap­pear. They are most ac­tive dur­ing mid morn­ing and mid af­ter­noon. White-tailed prairie dogs spend most of their days feed­ing and play­ing. After win­ter, when prairie dogs emerge from hi­ber­na­tion, there is nor­mally some time spent re­pair­ing the bur­rows and mounds sur­round­ing them, though this ac­tiv­ity is rare at any other time of the year. Dur­ing bad weather prairie dogs stay un­der­ground. White-tailed prairie dog colonies are di­vided into sev­eral fam­ily clans. An av­er­age colony has about six dif­fer­ent clans. White-tailed prairie dog clans often feed in the same areas, es­pe­cially when there is plenty of food around. Pups typ­i­cally stay near their home bur­row and spend much of their days play­ing with oth­ers. Pups of the same clan often wres­tle and chase each other around. Un­like other species of prairie dogs, white-tailed prairie dog pups have been ob­served play­ing and in­ter­act­ing with pups from other clans, even en­ter­ing the bur­row of a pup from an­other clan. Lit­tle is known about the so­cial struc­ture of white-tailed prairie dogs as they spend so much of their time un­der­ground. Fe­males typ­i­cally cease in­ter­ac­tions with their pups soon after pups emerge from bur­rows. Adult male white-tailed prairie dogs often wan­der much far­ther from their clans, es­pe­cially dur­ing breed­ing sea­son. Adult males and pups rarely in­ter­act and adults some­times dis­play ag­gres­sion to­wards pups. When a pup ma­tures, they move to the pe­riph­ery of the colony or to an­other colony al­to­gether. (Camp­bell and Clark, 1981; Tile­ston and Lech­leit­ner, 1966)

• Key Behaviors
• fossorial
• diurnal
• motile
• sedentary
• hibernation
• colonial

Home Range

The av­er­age white-tailed prairie dog colony is about 54 acres. Though there are usu­ally no dis­cernible bound­aries, prairie dogs do not usu­ally wan­der far from their clans within colonies. In white-tailed prairie dog colonies there are about 22 bur­rows per acre, both ac­tive and aban­doned. Bur­rows are lo­cated around shrubs and usu­ally have a few mounds sur­round­ing the en­trances. (Camp­bell and Clark, 1981; Tile­ston and Lech­leit­ner, 1966)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­tween and among white-tailed prairie dogs is highly vi­sual and au­di­tory. Prairie dogs are named for their trade­mark "bark". Though other species of prairie dog have many calls, some spe­cific for cer­tain types of preda­tors, most sci­en­tists rec­og­nize only five dif­fer­ent calls for white-tailed prairie dogs. The "rep­e­ti­tious bark" is used to alert oth­ers of a threat. The "laugh­ing bark" is a sig­nal for group co­he­sion. The "snarl" is used as an in­tense threat. The "growl" is used as a mild threat, and the "scream" is a dis­tress call. (Tile­ston and Lech­leit­ner, 1966; War­ing, 1970)

Vi­sual sig­nals are also widely used in C. leu­cu­rus. If a group of prairie dogs is feed­ing and an in­di­vid­ual stands up and looks around, all the oth­ers in the area will also stand up and sur­vey the area. White-tailed prairie dogs use mounds sur­round­ing their bur­rows as look­out points. (Tile­ston and Lech­leit­ner, 1966; War­ing, 1970)

There is lit­tle ev­i­dence of com­mu­ni­ca­tion by con­tact among C. leu­cu­rus. How­ever, a type of "kiss" has been ob­served among pups and from pup to adult. Also, when a male wants to mate, he might sig­nal to a fe­male by stick­ing his snout in her gen­i­tal re­gion and lift­ing her tail. (Tile­ston and Lech­leit­ner, 1966; War­ing, 1970)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic

• Other Communication Modes
• choruses

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

White-tailed prairie dogs are her­bi­vores, eat­ing grasses and sedges. Dur­ing the spring, when they emerge from win­ter dor­mancy, they eat sage­brush and salt­bush be­cause other foods are not yet ma­ture enough to eat. As other foods be­come avail­able, they switch to forbs, such as dan­de­lions, and grasses, such as west­ern wheat­grass. White-tailed prairie dogs also eat ma­ture seed heads of grasses, forbs, and sedges when they are avail­able. White-tailed prairie dogs seem to get all the water they need from the foods they eat, as adults are rarely ob­served drink­ing and pups drink only oc­ca­sion­ally. Pups are nursed until they emerge from bur­rows. When they are old enough to emerge from bur­rows they eat the same foods as adults. White-tailed prairie dogs spend spring, sum­mer, and fall eat­ing in prepa­ra­tion for their dor­mancy in the win­ter. (Tile­ston and Lech­leit­ner, 1966)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • folivore

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• flowers

Pre­da­tion

White-tailed prairie dogs have many nat­ural preda­tors. Black-footed fer­rets (Mustela ni­gripes) prey al­most ex­clu­sively on all species of prairie dogs. Amer­i­can bad­gers (Taxidea taxus) and golden ea­gles (Aquila chrysae­tos) are also im­por­tant preda­tors of prairie dogs. Foxes (Vulpes vulpes), coy­otes (Canis la­trans), rac­coons (Pro­cyon lotor), skunks (Mephi­tis mephi­tis), Amer­i­can minks (Martes amer­i­cana), and weasels (Mustela) are all op­por­tunis­tic preda­tors of white-tailed prairie dogs as well. Nine other species of rap­tors have been sighted in or around prairie dog colonies and prob­a­bly prey on them. (Camp­bell and Clark, 1981)

White-tailed prairie dogs live in colonies of bur­rows. Sen­tinel an­i­mals are al­ways sta­tioned near bur­row en­trances and sig­nal with en­er­getic whis­tles when dan­ger is no­ticed. Colony mem­bers rely on this vig­i­lance net­work and es­cap­ing to their bur­rows for pro­tec­tion from pre­da­tion. White-tailed prairie dogs are also cryp­ti­cally col­ored, help­ing to pro­tect them from pre­da­tion.

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes)
  • American badgers (Taxidea taxus)
  • golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos)
  • coyotes (Canis latrans)
  • red foxes (Vulpes vulpes)
  • raccoons (Procyon lotor)
  • striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis)
  • American mink (Martes americana)
  • weasels (Mustela)
  • ferruginous hawks (Buteo regalis)

Ecosys­tem Roles

De­spite the fact that white-tailed prairie dog pop­u­la­tions have been se­verely dec­i­mated, they re­main vital parts of high al­ti­tude grass­land and sage­brush ecosys­tems. White-tailed prairie dogs are prey for many grass­land preda­tors. Black footed fer­rets (Mustela ni­gripes) rely al­most ex­clu­sively on prairie dogs for prey and use their bur­rows for shel­ter. Prairie dogs aer­ate and mix the soil by bur­row­ing which in turn pro­vides bet­ter graz­ing for Amer­i­can prong­horn (An­tilo­capra amer­i­cana) and other her­bi­vores. Aer­at­ing the soil also makes it eas­ier for water to pen­e­trate deeper into the ground, mak­ing it more fer­tile for plants, es­pe­cially sage­brush.

• Ecosystem Impact
• soil aeration

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

White-tailed prairie dogs pro­vide cru­cial graz­ing lands for bison, prong­horn an­te­lope, and do­mes­tic live­stock. Prairie dog towns often have more fer­tile soil and bet­ter grass and sedge pro­duc­tion than other areas sur­round­ing them. This is a re­sult of the mix­ing and aer­at­ing of soil by bur­row­ing. The bi­o­log­i­cal waste pro­duced by prairie dogs also helps fer­til­ize the soil. Many prairie dog towns are pro­tected and lo­cated within na­tional parks and pro­vide nat­ural scenery and a safe wildlife ex­pe­ri­ence for the thou­sands of peo­ple who see them every year. (Cen­ter for Na­tive Ecosys­tems, 2006; Mon­tana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, 2008; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice, 2004)

• Positive Impacts
• ecotourism
• produces fertilizer

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

White-tailed prairie dogs have been con­sid­ered a pest for many years by farm­ers. Though prairie dog towns cre­ate op­ti­mal graz­ing lands for do­mes­tic live­stock, they also de­stroy crops. A prairie dog colony will re­duce avail­able for­age. As a re­sult, farm­ers have been try­ing to erad­i­cate these ro­dents for many years. White-tailed prairie dogs can also carry dis­eases such as syl­vatic plague, which can dec­i­mate pop­u­la­tions of an­i­mals, in­clud­ing prairie dogs. (Cen­ter for Na­tive Ecosys­tems, 2006; Mon­tana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, 2008; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice, 2004)

• Negative Impacts
• crop pest
• causes or carries domestic animal disease

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

White-tailed prairie dogs have so far sur­vived many con­certed ex­ter­mi­na­tion pro­grams. In 1915, the Bi­o­log­i­cal Sur­vey began pro­grams to ex­ter­mi­nate prairie dogs. In 1923 Wyoming state law re­quired prairie dogs to be ex­ter­mi­nated. By the end of 1923 95 to 100% of prairie dogs in Wyoming were killed. Since 1915, mil­lions of hectares of prairie dog land had been poi­soned. Prairie dogs have sur­vived these erad­i­ca­tion pro­grams and are now mak­ing a come­back be­cause of re­duced ef­forts to con­trol the pop­u­la­tion and pro­tec­tion by na­tional parks. Though they are ex­tremely re­duced in pop­u­la­tion from what they once were, white-tailed prairie dogs still re­main a low pri­or­ity for pro­tec­tion. (Camp­bell and Clark, 1981)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Sam Gold­broch (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Ore­gon, Stephen Frost (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Ore­gon.

Ref­er­ences

Camp­bell, T., T. Clark. 1981. Colony Char­ac­ter­is­tics and Ver­te­brate As­so­ci­ates of White-tailed and Black-tailed Prairie Dogs in Wyoming. Amer­i­can Mid­land Nat­u­ral­ist, Vol.105, No. 2: 269-276. Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 15, 2007 at http://​links.​jstor.​org/​sici?​sici=0003-0031%28198104%29105%3A2%3C269%3ACCAVAO%3E2.​0.​CO%3B2-7.

Cen­ter for Na­tive Ecosys­tems, 2006. "Cen­ter for Na­tive Ecosys­tems" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 10, 2007 at http://​www.​nativeecosystems.​org/​species/​white-tailed-prairie-dog-1/​white-tailed-prairie-dog.

Er­pino, M. 1968. Cop­u­la­tory Be­hav­ior in the White-tailed Prairie Dog. Amer­i­can Mid­land Nat­u­ral­ist, Vol. 79, No.1: 250-251.

Hoog­land, J. 1981. The Evo­lu­tion of Colo­nial­ity in White-tailed and Black-tailed Prairie Dogs (Sci­uri­dae: Cyno­mys Leu­cu­rus and C. Lu­dovi­cianus). Ecol­ogy, Vol.62, No.1: 252-272. Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 15, 2007 at http://​links.​jstor.​org/​sici?​sici=0012-9658%28198102%2962%3A1%3C252%3ATEOCIW%3E2.​0.​CO%3B2-6.

Mon­tana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, 2008. "White-tailed Prairie Dog De­tailed In­for­ma­tion" (On-line). An­i­mal Field Guide. Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 10, 2007 at http://​fwp.​mt.​gov/​fieldguide/​detail_​AMAFB06020.​aspx.

Tile­ston, J., R. Lech­leit­ner. 1966. Some Com­par­isons of the Black-tailed and White-tailed Prairie Dogs in. Amer­i­can Mid­land Nat­u­ral­ist, Vol. 75, No. 2: 292-316.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice, 2004. "White-tailed Prairie Dog Home­page" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 10, 2007 at http://​www.​fws.​gov/​mountain-prairie/​species/​mammals/​wtprairiedog/​.

War­ing, G. 1970. Sound Com­mu­ni­ca­tions of Black-tailed, White-tailed, and Gun­ni­son's Prairie Dogs. Amer­i­can Mid­land Nat­u­ral­ist, Vol. 83, No.1: 167-185. Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 15, 2007 at http://​links.​jstor.​org/​sici?​sici=0003-0031%28197001%2983%3A1%3C167%3ASCOBWA%3E2.​0.​CO%3B2-V.