November 16, 2008 - More Mammals from the Black Hills and the Badlands

Prairie Dogs were easy to find at both Custer State Park in the Black Hills and at the Badlands. Their current range is the short grass prairie through the middle of the United States from Texas to North Dakota. Historically, they were very abundant. One of my books gives an estimate of 5 billion of them in North America at their peak. Farmers and ranchers didn’t like them because they competed with livestock for food. Domestic animals were also injured when they stepped into Prairie Dog burrows. So, most of the Prairie Dogs were eliminated.

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In this photo you can see the black tip on the tail which gives them their official name of Black-tailed Prairie Dog. There are three other species of Prairie Dog in the United States but the Black-tailed has the most extensive range. In the Badlands, park rangers have reintroduced Black-footed Ferrets, a predator which specializes in Prairie Dogs. Ferrets are only out at night so most visitors never see them. However, park information signs report that the Ferrets are doing well and multiplying. Other Prairie Dog predators include hawks, eagles, coyotes, badgers, and rattlesnakes.

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Prairie Dogs are very social animals. They even cooperate in digging their burrows. When a predator is spotted, a Prairie Dog will give an alarm bark and all the neighbors head for their holes. These two remind me of two old guys sitting around swapping stories.

Burrowing Owls use abandoned Prairie Dog burrows as their nesting sites. I was told that some Burrowing Owls were in the Badlands Prairie Dog colonies but I didn’t happen to see any.

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Bighorn Sheep are found in the Badlands. This is a female. Both males and females have horns but the horns of the males are larger and curl around almost in a circle. We came around a bend in the road and surprised a group of three of these sheep. They took off straight up the side of the cliff. From our vantage point, it appeared to be a sheer, vertical wall. We were totally impressed with their ability to go straight up. They were not struggling, either. It seemed as effortless as walking across a flat surface.

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Pronghorn are found in the wide open prairies. They are the fastest mammals in North America. They can run in bursts of 70 miles per hour. They have great endurance, also, and can maintain a speed of 30 miles per hour for about 15 miles. Because they live in open areas they can detect predators with their excellent eyesight and then simply outrun them. Males like this one have horns that curve in and slightly to the rear. They have a prong about halfway up the horn.

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This photo gives you a better look at the prongs on the horns. These Pronghorn photos were taken at Custer State Park in the Black Hills,

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It’s not clear to me if this Pronghorn is a female or a young male. Females do have small horns but they don’t usually have the black lines running from the nose toward the eyes. That makes me think this may be a juvenile male.

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