bringyou you Fort Fort Collins.” We“We bring Collins Volume 3, Issue 1
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collins , colorado
Summer 2016
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Threads Pulled from the Tapestry: Prairie Dogs, Human Disturbance and Biodiversity Loss By Claire Heywood
I
hop a fence and walk into a field of burrows in a small yet-to-be-developed stretch of land within Fort Collins city limits. I survey the ground for soft mounds of sandy fur resting in the sun. Here, half of a colony of prairie dogs were recently exterminated to make way for a student housing development. It may be too early for scavengers to have pulled bodies from the burrows, unknowingly feeding on mammals fumigated to death by aluminum phosphide.
chasm between daily urban life and an idea of nature we idealistically seek to protect widens as we expand our impact, leaving ample room to forget what once existed where our homes, breweries and shops now stand. Today, I consider the broad implications of human impact through a lens as nuanced as any: the plight of the black-tailed prairie dog. Natural History of the Black-Tailed Prairie Dog
I spot a small brown mound fifty feet away through swaying blades of grass. When I get close, I realize it’s not a body, but a brown paper bag. Does it matter? A forgotten paper bag and the body of a poisoned animal in a field represent two lenses through which to gaze at the same overarching problems. I do not often think of what was cleared away to make room for the places in which I consume and enjoy my resources. I do not see whose family once lived in hollow earth below my home. I do not know where the plastic and paper I throw away will end up; perhaps in a field where hundreds of prairie dogs no longer live. We humans perceive very little of our impact unless we go reminding ourselves of it. Progressive urbanites are often in support of protecting the natural world, but the
Black-tailed prairie dogs—for simplicity’s sake, hereafter referred to as “prairie dogs”—exist in relationship to many other species in their ecosystem, and their disappearance from the grasslands could carry significant implications for other native species of wildlife. Mountain plovers, burrowing owls, endangered blackfooted ferrets, and hundreds of species of insects rely on prairie dog burrows for habitat and nesting space—thus their widely accepted designation as a keystone species (a species which is critical to the function and health of a significant number of other species in the ecosystem). The prairie dog provides prey for raptors and other predators, and before the advent of modern agriculture and development, their role as a grazer was critical in the health of enormous native grasslands.
Pausing to gaze out at a colony along the Foothills trail at Maxwell Natural Area, qualities reminiscent of humanity are easily observed: individual prairie dogs recognize other members of their coterie, or family unit, by exhibiting behavior similar to kissing. The highly social creatures engage in group communication through complex vocalization patterns. According to animal behaviorist Con Slobodchikoff, the level of detail in which prairie dogs communicate is a subject of study; researchers are curious if prairie dogs are intelligent enough to describe predators to one another. Prairie dogs chirp, bark, kiss, fight, cuddle, run, and forage from the time they emerge from the burrow at dawn to the time they retreat at sundown. When a predator approaches the colony, guard dogs emit a specific alarm call. All above retreat to safety into hollow earth below. They live in family units. They know one another. According to John Hoogland, who has spent forty years studying and observing prairie dogs, about two hundred years ago, prairie dogs likely numbered at over five billion with a range encompassing eleven states and parts of Canada and Mexico. In the twentieth century, burrowed earth of the plains became significantly less safe. Pioneers regarded prairie dogs as pests, and ranchers observed short grass on colony sites and concluded that prairie dogs compete with livestock for food. Ranch-