Utah Prairie Dog
Description and Ecology
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| Help guys! I am going extinct! |
Hey everyone! My name is Larry the prairie dog and I am
going to be your guide today. I tell you all about what is going on with my
family and the area that we live in. As you can see from this photo on the left,
sadly, we are going extinct. I want to be nice to you all today because at the
end of the day, it is you humans who are reading this memo that can make the
change. There will be an option for you to take action and I ask that you
please take it. But before I get too far ahead of myself, let me tell you a
little bit about my self.
You
wouldn’t think I am a rodent because of how gosh darn cute I am, but in reality
I belong to the Sciurid
family of rodents. I am one of five prairie dog species that are native to
North America; the others being the white tailed, black tailed, Gunnison’s, and
Mexican prairie dogs. My family and I are relatives to the white tailed prairie
dogs, at one point we were even from the same family, but now there are
ecological and physiographic barriers that stand between us so we each have our
own family name. There are several ways you can tell us and my cousins apart by
how we look, but in general it is best to not discriminate species just on
looks. Sometimes it is hard to spot us because we are pretty small animals. We
range in height from in 9.8 to 15.7 inches, but the females and males differ in
weight as the men are a little bit bigger. For example I will grow up to weigh
between 1.7 and 3.1 lbs and my girlfriend (picture of us on right) will weigh
between 1.4 and 2.5 lbs, but don’t tell her I told you that, she would be very
angry with me. I usually fluctuate in weight depending on the season too, the
food is just too good in the summer that I cant control myself so I can put on
up to an extra pound. The extra fat also helps us store up for the winter
months when we remain mostly underground.
Geographic and
Population Changes
The
picture on the right shows the three areas where my family can mostly be found,
and where the recovery efforts are going to make sure we continue on. My homeland
has greatly reduced over the last 100 years. The most common threats that
caused the loss of my homeland and much of my family are: “habitat loss and fragmentation,
plague, changing climatic conditions, unauthorized take, and disturbance from
recreational and economic land uses” (USFWS). About 100 years ago my family
size was about 95,000! Sadly, we reduced over time until the 1970’s when we
were only 3,000 prairie dogs left. Thanks to the recovery efforts that were
made we have doubled in size over the last 40 years and now stand about 6,000
prairie dogs tall. Here, take a look at me and all of my friends hanging around
my home.
Listing Date
and Type of Listing
As I said before, there have been recovery plans made to
help my family and I grow back to our old population. We were listed as an
endangered species in 1973 with the Endangered Species Act until 1984 when we
were reclassified as a threatened species. A formal recovery plan was initiated
in 1991 and was recently revised in the last five years to ensure future
growth. We are still a threatened species but have a plan and helpers to make
us abundant once again.
Cause of
Listing and Main Threats to its Continued Existence
I
mentioned earlier, when talking about my homeland shrinking, some of the
problems that caused my family to get smaller. When we were first listed the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife service said we were “threatened with extinction due to
habitat destruction and modification, over-exploitation, disease, and
predation.” The increase of humans in Utah started to create a lot of problems
for our family as they started to build urban areas and farms on our land,
causing our habitat to decrease greatly. Habitat loss is very detrimental to
who we are. If our homeland becomes fragmented, it is a lot easier for our
colonies to crash because there are less prairie dogs in them, and we are very
supportive people. However, it is not only humans that are a threat to us. There
are invasive plants entering our area that are inedible to us that overtake our
food sources. Coyotes, weasels, snakes, and ferrets also all prey on us as
well. That is why you often see me in my alert position, looking out for their
attack. Well, I am awake, my wife and kids sometimes sleep on the job as seen
in the photo. There are also other
off-roading vehicles that travel through our homeland and destroy our
vegetation.
Description of
Recovery Plan
Now
lets talk a little about all of the wonderful things that you all are doing for
me and my family. Here is an outline of the recovery plan as provided by the
USFWS:
1.
Evaluate and update the occurrence and distribution
data, maps, and survey efforts for the
Utah prairie dog across its known
range, as information becomes available.
2.
Conserve sufficient acreages and distribution of
occupied Utah prairie dog habitat on Federal, State, Tribal, and private lands.
3.
Minimize impacts of diseases to Utah prairie dogs
via research efforts, a plague prevention and response plan, and a monitoring
strategy.
4.
Develop the capability and implement actions as
needed to respond to natural disturbances (e.g., drought, fire).
5.
Continue the translocation of Utah prairie dogs to suitable
habitat using approved protocols.
6.
Develop and implement a public outreach program that
promotes a better understanding of and appreciation for the biological and
habitat values of the Utah prairie dog as well as tolerance of the species.
7.
Develop and implement research priorities to
identify and evaluate threats and create tools to expand Utah prairie dog
colonies where appropriate to assist with adaptive management and conservation
of the species.
8.
Incorporate
monitoring into recovery actions to ensure efficacy of actions.
As you
can see from this list defining our recovery, most of it focuses on protecting
our habitat. We need our land to live a happy and abundant life and it is being
threatened by human use. Now that you know how humans are affecting our
habitat, let me share with you what can be done to change the situation’
What you all
can do to help me
As we
are all animals with intrinsic value, I ask that you help us from going
extinct. There is already a lot of help going towards preserving the Utah
Prairie Dog but there are a couple things that you can do to help. First, is
that we need to make sure that properties do not expand into our habitat. There
are already laws in place to promote this protection, but you can contact
governor Gary Herbert if you hear or see anything that is not in terms with the
law: 350 North State Street, Suite 200; PO Box 142220; Salt Lake City, Utah
84114-2220. The next is related, we need to make sure that off-roading vehicles
stay in designated areas and do not destroy our homes. More signs can and
should be posted around the areas of Utah Prairie Dog habitat to ensure that
harmful use of the land does not happen. A letter to the governor for this may
be suitable as well.
Learn More
Here
are some links to a few different sources where you can learn more about me and
my family:
Sources
Google
images
U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service. 2012. Utah Prairie Dog (Cynomys parvidens) Revised
Recovery Plan. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Denver, CO. 169 pp.
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One last photo of me
and my brother wrestling….
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Very creative way of presenting your blog with the first person narrative point of view. #BIO227Fall2015
ReplyDeleteI liked how you took on your animal's blog in their point of view, it was hilarious and also gave me a lot of useful information! Very funny, good job! #BIO227Fall2015
ReplyDelete