PRAIRIE DOG TOWN

After a walk of some forty or fifty feet from the river a faint chirping bark could be heard. A little further on, covering an area of several acres, was their first view of a prairie dog town. The entire area was dotted with dirt mounds about a foot high, each appearing to have a hole in the top, and spaced about ten to thirty feet apart. The inhabitants seemed to number in the hundreds. It could only be guessed at the population remaining in the many burrows.

These black-tailed dogs of the prairie are not the only inhabitants of their towns or the surrounding area. Unusual as it may seem at first, the buffalo are one of their nearest neighbors. The prairie dog's favorite site for building is in areas heavily grazed by buffalo. In these areas the taller grasses have been thinned out and the range is largely taken over by buffalo grass and gramas, giving the prairie dog its favored condition for construction. In turn, the buffalo enjoy the bare, dusty areas to wallow in. The burrows are often jointly occupied by small long-legged owls that nest underground in the tunnels. Though not welcomed by the prairie dog, bullsnakes and prairie rattlers often take up residence in the towns, also.

Often the tunnels of a prairie dog town have prevented flooding on the plains. As the main tunnels may go down steeply for ten feet or more they can hold a considerable amount of water. This was a fact that, after considerable effort, dawned upon Meriwether Lewis. He was determined that one of the little dogs would be caught and sent back to the states to President Thomas Jefferson. His men spent several hours trying to capture one of the frisky creatures before they were instructed to start digging. Having excavated to a depth of six feet one of the men ran a pole down into the burrow, and never reached bottom. When someone commented that if they dug any further they'd strike water, Lewis got a grand idea. They would flush the dog out!