White-tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys leucurus)

White Tailed Prairie Dog, Hutton Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Laramie Wyoming.
Photograph by Devon. License: Public Domain. (view image details)

WHITE-TAILED PRAIRIE DOG FACTS

Description
The White-tailed Prairie Dog is yellowish in color with black streaks. It has a blackish-brown spot above the eye and on the cheek. The tail hairs are white, sometimes banded with black and reddish color near the base. White-tailed Prairie Dogs dig burrows in colonies.

Size
Length: 34cm - 37cm. Tail length: 4 cm - 6.5cm

Environment
grasslands, plains

Food
herbaceous plants and grass

Breeding
A litter 3-8 young are born after a gestation of about 30 days.

Range
found in the Western United States - Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana

Notes
Prairie Dogs have been hunted intensively as it was believed that they had a negative impact on grasslands for livestock.

Classification

Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Sciuridae
Genus:	Cynomys
Species:	leucurus
Common Name:	White-tailed Prairie Dog

Relatives in same Genus
Black-tailed Prairie Dog (C. ludovicianus)
Utah Prairie Dog (C. parvidens)

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