Black-tailed+Prairie+Dog+2010



By:Hannah F



Black-tailed prairie dogs are tan with a lighter belly. Their tails have a black tip on it and that is how they got their name. Adults can weigh from 2 to 3 pounds males are heavier than female. They can be from 14 to 17 inch long with a 3 to 4 inch long tail. They have small ear, but good hearing, and small black eyes. They live 3 to 5 years. The Black-tailed prairie dogs live in the Great Plains of North America from the USA-Canada border to the USA-Mexico border. They live in complex communities called “towns” or “colonies”. The Black-tailed prairie dogs eat 98% of vegetables for their diet. Mating season is in March. They have 3 to 4 pups a litter. The pups are born in April and May. Gestation for them is 33-38 days. They are endangered because some of them live in farmland and they are being killed the whole colonies are being killed and studies in 1961 estimated only 364,000 acres of black-tailed prairie dogs habitat in the United States. People were selling t hem but that got banned in 2003 and they were put in zoos but no more are allowed to be caught, traded, or sold. That is how we can save them.