Black-tailed prairie dog
The prairie dog is tan with streaks of grey hair and a white belly. The furry tail can have areas of black hair on the tip. They have large, black eyes with white rings around them. Prairie dogs are not in danger of extinction, but other species are directly dependent on the prairie dog population. The black-footed ferret, for example, eats roughly 100 prairie dogs each year and cannot survive without access to large colonies of them. The largest prairie dog town on record was discovered in Texas and contained over 400,000,000 prairie dogs.
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- Conservation StatusNot Protected
- Life span5-8 years
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Body size1-4 lbs.
12-17 in. - Native habitat Prairies or plains of American plains, west of the MIssissippi
- DietVegetation
