They are actiKilly short-tailed squirrels that live in and upon the 

 ground and are just rather extreme forms of ground squirrels or 

 gophers, of which there are numerous species all over the con 

 tineni west of the Mississippi. 



Prairie dogs were once the head of everything on the prairies. 

 and they once inhabited the whole of them. They are singular 

 little creatures, and they display many traits that are particularly 

 endearing to us. They live in "cities" divided very precisely into 

 wards in which the "gardens" of individual families are care- 

 fully defined but the homes of all members are connected by 

 means of a labyrinth of subterranean tunnels In bygone days 

 these cities sometimes stretched continuously for as much as two 

 hundred miles, with burrow entrances about equally spaced a 

 few paces from one another in all directions. Even as late as the 

 end of the last century one such city was calculated to house 

 over three hundred million prairie-dog families. But these vast 

 congeries were not just chaotic masses of animals who had 

 come together simply because there were so many of them and 

 there was sufficient food to maintain them. On the contrary, 

 recent studies have shown that they have a very definite polity, 

 and one that is centered around the ward system. 



Prairie dogs eat grass, and each requires just so much to 

 maintain itself, to thrive, and to raise a family: but the supply 

 must be continuous. It is manifest that none but those prairie 

 dogs living on the outermost fringes of one of their "cities"— and 

 one was over 37.000 square miles — can go foraging afar for grass: 

 they must obtain it. all year round, in their immediate vicinity. 

 The really astonishing thing is that this "vicinity" is measured 

 in only tens of square feet, being a very modest circle around 

 the entrance to each family's burrow. The average animal stays 

 within this precinct, though members of one ward may meander 

 about within the limits of their ward. To regulate this, two 

 prairie dogs, on meeting, exchange a sort of kiss. Then, if they are 

 of the same ward, either they go on about their business or they 

 stand up and indulge in mutual actions which have been called 

 coat-cleaning. But if an animal from one ward wanders into the 

 territory of another, the recognition kiss is followed by quite a 

 rumpus, whidi invariably results in the intruder withdrawing 

 precipitately to his own territory. Sometimes an animal may 

 meander into an adjacent territory and, in his hurry to get back 

 to his own, may rush into a third — where, on being challenged, 

 he may completely lose his nerve and go rushing about in 

 helpless terror. Then everybody rises up on his hind legs and. 

 paddling the air like tiny dogs begging, gives out with a loud, 

 whistling "tee-dee-tit-tee" that is taken up and echoed in all 

 directions. This brings the lost one to a dead stop and seems 

 invariably to give him directions, for he scampers off home 

 while everybody else sits up and waits. It has been suggested 

 that every clan has a slightly different intonation that is recog- 

 nizable to its members but, of course, quite beyond our powers 

 of sound differentiation. 



The Prairie Dog was once the most important animal on this 

 continent next to the Beaver, and did more to create its surface 

 topography than any other. The burrows of these animals are 

 an inextricable maze of passages with little side bedrooms for 

 individual families, community passages, and all sorts of blind 

 alleys, escape exits, and other devices. The animals are great 

 diggers quite apart from the essential business of homemaking. 

 and indulge in the activity to keep their claws trimmed. In cap 

 tivity they move vast tonnages of earth from one place to another 

 endlessly making new tunnels every day to no purpose at all. 

 This ceaseless activity over thousands of years all over the 

 Prairie Belt constituted a sort of super-plowing of the whole 

 surface: and. what is more, it was a "deep-plowing." for the 



animals were constantly ai work on the subsoil, loosening It, 

 bringing a quota of ii up to the surface, and making It poMible 

 for water to percolate down. 



Prairie dogs also make little volcano-like mounds around 

 their burrow entrances, so that the whole plain becomes lumpy 

 in a fairly even pattern. When it rains, the moisture naturally 

 runs down into the gutters between the contiguous mounds, 

 which consequently remain moister longer. The result of this is 

 that the grasses grow more readily and luxuriantly there than 

 upon the slopes of the mounds. Each prairie-dog family then 

 manages to maintain itself on a share of the verdure around its 

 hole without ever infringing upon the territories of its neighbors. 

 At the same time, the droppings of the animals are deposited on 

 the slopes, so that the essential minerals are constantly rotated 

 uphill and down dale, as it were. Then again, nothing promotes 

 the growth of grasses like good regular mowing, and this is 

 exactly what the animals do day in and day out. Further, the 

 hope for any other more leafy plant to survive in this sea of 

 grass, even if seeded from a bird dropping or by the wind, is 

 short-lived indeed, for the animals chop it off the moment it 

 shows itself Thus the prairie dogs tilled and cultivated the 

 prairies, weeded them, and created endless food for endless 

 herds of larger animals as well. 



The moment a new breed of men — the white man — entered 

 the land and started killing off the prairie dogs — mostly because 

 horses were alleged to break their ankles in their holes — all 

 sorts of things went wrong. Herbaceous plants began to creep 

 in, led by thistles, and right on the heels of these came woody- 



Overleaf top left: Gaily colored chipmunks are as indus- 

 trious on the prairies as elsewhere, making stores of seeds 

 that often grow and change the whole local flora. Below 

 and right: The true monarch of the prairie and partly its 

 creator, the Prairie Dog (Cynomys). Really a large ground 

 squirrel, it lives communally and once dug "cities" accom- 

 modating hundreds of millions of animals. 



The American Badger is a denizen of the prairies and once 

 fed largely on the Prairie Dog. It has the reputation of being 

 immensely strong for its size. 



