Habitat: Prairie Dogs live in temperate grassland, open prairie, and semi-desert from the central North America from Canada to Mexico.

Diet: Their diet is at least 98% grasses, leaves, stems, weeds, and forbs – and sometimes insects.

Reproduction: Prairie Dogs reproduce within their coteries. Usually one male will breed with multiple females. They breed from January to April, depending on latitude. Females give birth to a litter of one to eight pups. During breeding season the females are very aggressive and will defend their burrows from other females in the colony.

Behavior: Prairie Dogs are highly social and live in complex societies. They used many different vocalizations to communicate with each other. Prairie dogs live in “towns,” and within towns are families called “coteries,” which comprise of 1 male with 1-4 females and young. Within the town there could be hundreds of individuals. Each family defends their own territory called “wards.” They are diurnal and active all year round.

Physical Description: The coat of a prairie dog may be either reddish brown, grayish, or light brown. Their undersides are buff and their tales are black tipped. Tail length is around 4 inches, but it varies from individual to individual. Prairie dogs have sharp incisors used to clip their food and strong hind legs so that the prairie dog is able to stand upright.

Conservation Status: Threatened

Fun Facts:

	One of the prairie dog’s biggest predator’s in the black-footed ferret.
	Prairie dogs build intricate underground tunnel systems that can be over one hundred miles long
	One prairie dog, called the sentinel, watches the other prairie dogs, and will bark to alert the others of danger.
	The largest recorded colony was in Texas with there being an estimated 400 million in the colony.