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Don't let their name confuse you. Prairie "dogs" are ground-dwelling rodents — relatives of squirrels, chipmunks and marmots. The black-tailed prairie dog is the most abundant of North America's five prairie dog species.
When visiting the Great Plains, you may see prairie dogs near their burrow mounds, scanning for predators and intrusive neighbors. Prairie dogs warn one other of approaching danger with high-pitched chirps and by throwing their front feet skyward in a behavior known as the "jump-yip."
As ecosystem engineers, prairie dogs shape the grasslands they live in through digging and chewing down plants around their burrows. They make grassland plant communities more diverse, open foraging areas for cattle, and boost how much rainwater penetrates the ground — all of which goes against the impressions that ranchers had of this spunky little mammal in the early 1900s.
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