Black-Tailed Prairie Dog

Northwest Territories
Where the species
is found
Black-Tailed
British Columbia
Prairie
Dog
parkscanada.gc.ca
Saskatchewan
Alberta
Cynomys ludovicianus
Manitoba
Edmonton
The Black-Tailed Prairie Dog is actually a
large ground squirrel that spends much of
its time in underground burrows. It’s very
social and playful. It marks its territory
Calgary
Quebec
Saskatoon
by stretching vertically and throwing its
forefeet high in the air while making a
bark-like call. That’s why it’s sometimes
called the barking squirrel.
Regina
Ontario
United States
What you can do
You might find The Black-Tailed Prairie Dog
on a private property, at Grasslands National
Park or at another protected site.
Canada
For more information, please visit:
www.pc.gc.ca/speciesatrisk
www.sararegistry.gc.ca
United States
Legend
Distribution
Grasslands National Park of Canada
Other photos: © Parks Canada Agency
Black-Tailed
Prairie Dog
Cynomys ludovicianus
Description
The Black-Tailed Prairie Dog weighs one to 1.5
kilograms and is slightly smaller than a house
cat. It has a tan-coloured coat with a lighter belly.
The tail is relatively long and has a distinctive black
tip. This rodent has large teeth and eats mainly
grass, roots and insects including grasshoppers
and beetles. Its large eyes help it to spot danger
that is still far away.
These particularly sociable squirrels live in
colonies that are divided into social units.
Natural features such as tall grass, rocky ground,
creeks or brush sometimes define the borders of
these social units. Each social unit is comprised
of a family group that includes one adult male,
three to four adult females and their young
up to a year old. Members of the family group
identify each other by muzzling or “kissing.”
Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs also groom each other
and have quite a large vocabulary of barks and calls.
They spend the first two hours after sunrise
mainly looking for food and spend much of the
rest of the day grooming, bathing, stretching,
socializing and repairing their burrows.
© Johane Janelle
Mating takes place underground in March to mid-April.
A litter of about three pups is born 35 to 41 days later.
The maximum life span for male Black-Tailed Prairie
Dogs is five years. Females can live up to eight years.
Threats
The Black-Tailed Prairie Dog is listed as a species of
special concern under the federal Species at Risk Act
because of its relatively small population within a small
geographic area that is relatively isolated from more
southern populations. These factors also contribute to
making it vulnerable to disease outbreaks. Some people
dislike Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs because they compete
with cattle for grass. They also worry that cattle may be
injured by the holes and uneven ground that colonies
of Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs create. In many areas of
the species’ range, people have poisoned, trapped,
shot, flooded and dynamited Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs
from their homes. When Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs were
eliminated, the owls, ferrets, snakes, foxes and badgers
that feed on them also disappeared. Threats that prairie
dogs face now include:
• people who disturb them and their burrows
• being vulnerable to disease because of their social
nature and living in colonies
• being relatively isolated from the nearest prairie dog
population in the United States
Population
What Parks Canada is doing
The only place in Canada that Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs
exist in the wild is in and around Grasslands National
Park in southwestern Saskatchewan. The park’s
west block centres on the Frenchman River Valley,
where Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs live in large colonies.
The first Black-Tailed Prairie Dog towns were discovered
in Canada in 1927. There are now about 25 colonies in
and around the park. It’s difficult to know how many
prairie dogs there are in Canada. The population seems
to have decreased since 2001, although it can show great
variability from year to year.
Parks Canada has taken the lead on protecting the
Black-Tailed Prairie Dog. They are:
Habitat and conservation
Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs:
• live in broad, flat river valleys and upland grasslands
• dig extensive burrows in the soil. A single colony
can have hundreds of mounds the size of very large
“mole hills”
• like vegetation such as sage and wheat grass.
Within Grasslands National Park, the colonies are
protected by the Canada National Parks Act. The BlackTailed Prairie Dog is also protected by the Saskatchewan
Wildlife Act.
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trying to make sure that the population
continues to survive over the long-term
letting the populations within Grasslands
National Park fluctuate in response to natural
processes such as drought or predators
trying not let colonies get established or
expand in areas where Black-Tailed Prairie Dog
activity may be detrimental to other species at
risk, such as Greater Sage-Grouse
regularly monitoring its activities and
population changes so that action can be taken
if their numbers drop significantly or if the BlackTailed Prairie Dog expands its colonies and has a
negative effect on other species
dusting Black-tailed Prairie Dog burrows with
insecticide to destroy fleas that carry plague.