White-tailed prairie dogs live at higher, colder elevation than their black-tailed cousins, and Wyoming’s dry basin country around Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge, Fossil Butte National Monument, and the Red Desert gives them exactly the sagebrush-steppe terrain they need. NatureServe ranks the species S2, imperiled, in Wyoming, a real conservation concern tied to sylvatic plague outbreaks that can wipe out an entire colony in a season, unlike anything most of the state’s other rodents face.
Records climb sharply into a July peak, more than 70 times the January low, tracking the short window when colonies are most active above ground before a long winter of hibernation this species undergoes unlike its black-tailed relative. With 634 records, this is one of the better-documented burrowers in this rank range.
Full species profile
