The black-tailed prairie dog is an eastern Wyoming animal, a species of shortgrass plains and gentle, open ground. Of 683 records, 445 come from a single famous town at Devils Tower National Monument, with Crook County leading at 506 and Laramie, Natrona, and Converse counties trailing across the eastern and central plains.
A town under the turf
Prairie dogs live in colonies of interlocking burrow systems that can cover many acres, cropping the grass short around their mounds so no predator approaches unseen. Their barked alarm calls carry colony-wide news of threats, and the burrows themselves shelter everything from burrowing owls to rattlesnakes, which makes the prairie dog a foundation species of the plains.
Winters below, summers above
Black-tailed prairie dogs do not truly hibernate, but they stay underground through the worst cold and can go days without emerging. Wyoming’s record follows that rhythm, building from a nearly silent December to a June crest, when young-of-the-year pups are above ground and the towns are at their busiest.
Status in Wyoming
NatureServe ranks the black-tailed prairie dog S2, Imperiled, in Wyoming. Sylvatic plague and historical poisoning campaigns shrank its range across the West. The species remains native to the state, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
