How Prairie Dogs Barely Escaped a Centuries-long Hunt I Earth Explained!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
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Prairie dogs live in the grasslands of North America, where they’re a keystone species. Despite their name, they aren’t really dogs, but a kind of ground squirrel.
Over the last 200 years, hunting has decimated the prairie dog population from around 5 billion to just 2% of that number. And now they’re facing another threat: plague. Is there any way to save them from this double danger?
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#terramatters #prairiedogs
📖 Scientific sources:
Terrestrial vertebrate communities at black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) towns
Scientific Figure on ResearchGate. Available from: www.researchga... [accessed 16 Dec, 2021]
Plague - Ecology & Transmission
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID), Division of Vector-Borne Diseases (DVBD), August 6, 2021
www.cdc.gov/pl...
Plague - Maps and Statistics, Plague in the United States
Content source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID), Division of Vector-Borne Diseases (DVBD), May 27, 2021
www.cdc.gov/pl...
Plague: Past, Present, and Future
PLoS Medicine 5(1):e3, DOI:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050003, SourcePubMed, February 2008
www.researchga...
Evidence for the involvement of an alternate rodent host in the dynamics of introduced plague in prairie dogs
Journal of Animal Ecology, 4 June 2009
besjournals.on...
Population dynamics of reintroduced Gunnison's Prairie dogs in the southern portion of their range
The Journal of Wildlife Management, 10 March 2014
wildlife.onlin...
📷 Footage sources:
TC 00:59
Josiah Gregg_Commerce of the Prairies_1855.jpeg
www.kshs.org/p...
TC 01:02
first published photograph of prairie dog town_Allen Wallihan_1893.jpeg
www.lewis-clark...
all other photographs: Getty Images
I like Prairie dogs and all ... but it's not a myth that horses break their legs in them. Horses manage to hurt/kill themselves on just about any obstacle. On our ranch, over the course of about 30 years, 2 horses broke their legs in the prairie dog burrows. And - neither of those times were the cases ever "documented". Yes, it's rare but it's not a myth. My stance is - shit happens. Just because your cows are so stupid, they accidentally drown themselves in the river, doesn't mean you need to get rid of every river. The leg-breaking thing is mostly just pretext to kill something fecklessly.
I'm not saying that didn't happen. I wasn't there. I don't know what happened. But just as a suggested possability, could it be that they broke their legs in burrows and not necessarily prairie dog burrows? The only reason I even mention it is because prairie dog burrows seem to be surrounded by a mount of earth. Seems like it might be a plausible claim. But again, I don't know what happened and I don't raise horses on the prairie so I'm by no means any kind of authority. And even if the mound did make it less likely that wouldn't mean that no horse has ever done that.
@@PaulTheSkeptic its common sense. Look up old mechanical deer traps, for example. Some were just trapdoor latches in holes that would get their leg stuck in the hole. Also while these may be cute, I will presume that they would eat nearby crops, but this all of course does not justify their extermination
@@davidd1289 I don't really know,... I feel like I missed some of that conversation.
I just thought it was possible that there were other animals that also make burrows who live in the same places. I don't know that's true. I freely admit that know very little about any of this.
I just, when they first said it, I thought "How could they say that and be so sure?" but when I thought about it and looked at their holes, I thought "Oh duh. Because there's a big hill on it." Their holes are elevated somewhat above the height of the prairie. It seems less like a random hole that could be anywhere among where horses step and more like a little hill that a walking creature would rather sidestep then step up upon it. But I could be wrong. I just don't know if that's a good example under the circumstances.
I just wanted to be understood. I'm not trying to give you a hard time. Sorry if I came off that way.
Because of this video I have started the prairie dog space program. The first rocket will be named 220 swift.
should be able to hold 22-250 of them. they lift off from between 300 to 1200 yards...
I live in idaho and there here so I don't know how much I believe this video
I can see you not wanting them in your backyard but they should be protected on public land from hunting
No they shouldn't, they are responsible for more damage than hogs. 🙄
Public land is partly for hunting sir! If you want more prairie dogs be an advocate for increased public land and conservation of wildlife habitat. I suggest joining pheasants forever!
@@johnpaschal3217 understood, but in the meantime we can bring their population back up my reducing hunting of prairie dogs. They're important to All Creatures.
@@mr.noneyabidness humans are by far the most destructive creature on earth. So should we be hunted?
@@madbomber9063 I would absolutely love to hunt pedos, or MAP's as you all refer to them now.
I'm from Saskatchewan and definitely would recommend any tourist to visit Grasslands National Park (West Block). The west side of the park is home to a massive Black-Tailed Prairie Dog town with trails that you can walkthrough. Just please remember to stay on the trails for the protection of the dogs and for yourself as there are black widow spiders living in abounded dog dens. Also for fellow Prairie folks, I'd definitely recommend going as Prairie Dogs are not the small "gophers" (Richardson's ground squirrel) that we see all over the place. I swear they were the size of a large cat, blew my mind. Definitely worth seeing :)
I never knew about these creatures, Thanks for bringing this up. You're the best 👏👏
🐿Nice to see someone bringing attention to plight of these animals. 👍
🐿I really would have hoped that we humans would have learned better by now than to still be out there committing what amounts to utterly pointless 'genocide' ('species-cide?) on these amazing, adorable, highly intelligent and social beings: There is respectable scientific research showing that they have a relatively complex and sophisticated language, for crying out loud! [SEE: New York Times 'Can Prairie Dogs Talk?' May 12, 2017 if interested.]
🐿#PrarieDogsArePeopleToo ! #PrarieDogRights !
Do you really believe what these people say? I mean like how do you know scientists have done research?? And it’s not a myth cattle and horses injure themselves all the time ranchers are in tears right now because of them. And some people may say shooting prairie dogs is “cruelty” but when you hit them they basically blow up there dead on impact and don’t feel a thing. Humans need to control their population even though the cattle and horses may not injure themselves because of it. Say a horse is running they can’t see the hole and they break a leg because of it.
And I also clicked on your prairie dog rights and prairie dogs are people too AND THERES NOTHING THERE
AND ITS NOT GENOCIDE ITS HUNTING
And what is your channel about? Calling everybody out for doing stuff you call wrong?
what a heart breaking tragedy to realize what we've done to this wonderful little creature. and to think hunting them for fun is still an ongoing practice it seems. wow down 98% from 5 billion... that is definitely something to be ashamed of ... as humans.... collectively i mean. humans do this all the time.
I'm a rancher and I have to be honest. They really just suck. They are very cute, my kids love watching them. The land they inhabit is also basically useless due to the vegetation loss, it's barren. You can't grow on it and you can't graze on it. I don't exterminate them because they are native and we share the land. I also have personal knowledge that their little cute bodies are extraordinarily explosive if randomly struck with high velocity objects.
Prairie Dogs are alive and well in South Dakota! They will eat pasture down to nothing but bare dirt, causing wind erosion problems. Shooting them is a great time, but really does little to control the population in a year when they have 2-3 litters of pups.
Love this channel, can never understand why people hunt animals especially these harmless cute rodents as if decimation of their population down to just 2% were not enough. So sad.
It's called Getting Food for MOST people who live in rural areas.
Unlike the Big City Folks who just stroll on down to their choice of local supermarkets, those of us living in the middle of nowhere can't do that on a daily, or even weekly basis: in my case, it's 90 miles ROUND TRIP to reach an Albertson's, a Wally World, or a variant of Safeway or Smiths' (Kroeger).
How about you open up your mind and try to understand that there are MILLIONS of us folks who live in rural areas and do NOT have the close convenience of Big Cities?
Cheers from the Oil Patch in Central WY
@@jrbailey3208 noone forced your ancestors to colonise the lands which didn't belong to them.
@@KateeAngel
Newsflash: prior to the Asian Migration from Asia to North America, NO ONE 'owned' anything in North America.
AFTER the Asians migrated to North America, THEY engaged in 'Imperialism'; ie, the larger, more powerful, by THEN indigenous nations, warred, raped, looted, pillaged, and ENSLAVED lesser powerful tribes and nations, forcing them to do the will of the conquerors!
Newsflash 2: 'Expansion' via the acquisition of lands 'that didn't belong' to the conquering peoples (yes, that is plural and global) is a HUMAN CHARACTERISTIC which is UNIVERSAL in nature!
Newsflash 3: The fine folks who left Europe were FORCED OUT by their Govts, for religious reasons and liberty reasons: they didn't want to end up being burned at the stake, hanged, imprisoned, enslaved (bond servants for life), and otherwise abused and used by those in power, so YES, they WERE 'forced' to come here because there was NOWHERE ELSE to go!
Learn some history will you?
@@jrbailey3208 It is not called getting food. They are NOT eating the prairie dogs they are killing and they are still strolling down to the store to buy hunting supplies made in China and food from the stores. They are ALL killing wildlife because they are bad people. Greetings from way out in the Ozarks where I do grow my own food and dont kill or eat the dead. You grocery store shopping liar.
Not a hunter, but hunting has no effect on the population of rodents, which is determined by land use. The plow and the subdivision are what has reduced range of prairie dogs.
When I worked in the zoo, I got bit by a prairie dog.
1:27 Claiming??? Bruh!
Prarie dog hunts are a blast. Everyone should try it.
Question: What do you do with the meat? In Europe hunting just for sport is frowned upon among the hunting comunity and it is clear they ain't pests. So, reason?
@@jekabsojarsulskis9740 I lowkey feel like people hunt to make themselves feel big and powerful idk just my observation
Cool video!
I once had a prairie dog as a pet. His name was Fuzzy. I found out the hard way that something from my friends pool water would dry my prairie dog crazy like he had rabies; when I was around him after I got out of the pool.
Still didn't explain what it is they do that benefits the planet.
You eluded to it then dropped the subject.
It would be nice if people would stop hunting such animals so sad to hear some would actually shot something so small .
It's not even hunting because they don't eat what they kill. It's mass slaughter for 'fun.'
*sees predator* goes all squeaky boi to save their family
They also aeriate the soil and help recover it from human agriculture
Lmao. No they cover yards of healthy soil with stagnant clay or sand. They don't rejuvenate anything neither do they allow moisture in their mounds are built to expressly keep moisture out.
@@audiosreality This is false.
@@minutemansam1214 wanna bet. Go study the ecology of fields they pollute. Adoration is the loosening of top soil to allow moisture to access the root systems. Prairie dogs eat any root system in their tunnel and pull clay to the top burying grass growing soils with compacted dead areas. Ever tried taking a scoop of dirt from one of their mounds? You'll find out quickly why nothing grows on it.
@@audiosreality pollute? Yeah I'm sure the Midwest was a wasteland before we arrived, famed for its utterly dry and lifeless soil.
@@comradesillyotter1537 Most of the prairie grasses had more rejuvenation from the grassfires that tended to burn in 4+ year cycles. These fires also would devastate any prairie dog colony on flat or rolling hill topography and leaving only a very few members of these areas while the colonies in steep areas (burrows that go into side hills or cutbanks ) would survive. Flat topography was never a preferred territory of the prairie dog until after agriculture and settlement prevented the fires. The first recorded prairie dog colony wasn't found in canada until 1938 (val marie sask) and 50 years later they had expanded 300 miles north west from there. These same grass fires adjusted the buffalo migration routes as they cut swaths hundreds to hundreds of thousands of acres at a time. Some were estimated to reach millions of acres in this time. Even today these fires when conditions are correct can reach over a hundred thousand acres with our advancements of equipment and infrastructure (roads). When these fires hit all of the oxygen in a vertical burrow is drawn up into the fire and replaced with carbon dioxide. While burrows might expand into these flat areas mother nature would cull them back in a fire year. Same as she culled them back with disease in the wet years. Either one has a death rate over 90% with disease rates killing them to the extent of 99% + on the extreme wet years we seen in the late 2000's early 2010's. We are in the recovery cycle of this as the populations have exploded with the dry conditions found over much of the northern range currently and without natural fires they have gotten to the point of forcing towns to poison inside town limits to try and control them.
Where do you guys get all this video footage from?
We do have a network of cinematographers (Kudos!) around the world. 📽
@@terramater fair enough, it's great quality. I thought I recognised a few shots from Planet Earth II
I'm sure they stole clips from planet earth ||
@@astonike8383 I knew it, last video definitely too
These guys are good fun with an AR-15 and a good optic. I've shot over 100 in a single day. I've also had to shoot a horse because it broke a leg in a prairie dog hole.
.223 VarmintX ?
They’re everywhere in western Canada
I love this video
Those who killed such a beautiful creature for economic reasons or for simply the pleasure of hunting small creatures to please their desires. Have a special place in Prairie Hell for them. Can man not just kill another species and just co exit in harmony?
Lies, lies, and more lies. Go ask a farmer how much these prairie dogs eat. They will bankrupt you!
Can insecticides be carcinogenic? I hope these scientists did their research.
they are obviously not healthy but it beats dying of the plague. medicine or preventative measures is usually all about risk management.
That is the least of their worries. The businessmen that lease the public land to borrow grass for cattle and sheep get disaster relief aid to pay for winter cattle food and get welfare money from the government to blow up the prairie dog towns on the public lands they rent.
They flip if you hit them high.
The division of wildlife sets the season dates and bag limits if they were in critical numbers in a area they would be able to hunt year round
Nice dogs 😌
Good target practice too.
Uh this thing totally missed the face that we have these things all over ALBERTA as well
Hunting when the numbers get too high helps prevent plague situations. Where I live there are prairie dogs in the middle of the city in any vacant lot. The problem comes because they can't migrate easily so the populations become too dense, and some have to be exterminated.
Notice how the narrator said "conquered" more land, whoever wrote that needs to see a therapist because they simply couldn't help themselves, imagine having spiteful emotions toward people from 300 years ago who without the writer wouldn't even be living in said country, people can be so stupid.
Wait so we gave the plague to the rats?
@@stormienormie4516 but it was introduced to the America's by European settlers where it made its way to praire dogs. The Praire dogs biological similarities to other rodents such as rats meant it was able to carry this newly introduced pathogen.
I wish hunting was illegal
Ugh humans are the worst
bad people. cute "dogs"......
It's spelled Saskatchewan.
👍
I shoot 5 to 10 a day
Humans in 1800s: one billion
Prairie dogs:FIVE BILLION
huh wait really??
American's will NEVER learn. The Dust bowl in the 1930s isn't enough to teach us NOT to mess with the prairie lands? Nope, because we still think it's ok to take out an animal that helps these lands stay healthy. 🙄😒
I see you're vying for the Number 1 slot in Non-Sequitur subject matter!
NO ONE uses the Ag techniques that where used in the 1930's; YOU'D KNOW THAT if you weren't addicted to be spoon fed emotional pablum as this channel, the NatGeo, Animal Planet, and the rest of the lying swine channels shovel out to Big City Folks on a daily basis!
Dogs DEVASTATE grasslands....I LIVE in Open Range with several Dog Towns with a mile to 2 miles of my house, and where a Dog Town is, there vegetation is stripped and the area resembles a Moonscape!
Wake up and do your OWN research, using VERIFIED academic sources, or better yet, go to an Open Range area and SEE with your own eyes what happens in the NATURAL PROCESS, and NOT some 'park zone' kept artificial dog town!
Cheers from the Oil Patch in Central WY
@@jrbailey3208 What I read in your comment is that the almighty creator of all living and inanimate beings has made a few mistakes. One of them was prairie dogs obviously.
@@tomm4073 humans, that’s what you meant to say
@@NDwhITeBoYZ No, I did not mean to say that. If you think that humans are a plague to the natural world as it was just a few thousand years ago I still agree with your insight.
@@tomm4073
No, the Almighty (the biblical Jesus, as He is the Creator of the Universe, John 1:1-5, created all things to work together: it took the advent of contra-rational and contra-reality Tree Huggers to come along and NOT understand how things are supposed to work together.
As a kid, my family moved from New Jersey to the eastern suburbs of Denver, CO... Our house literally was on the eastern edge of the city at that point...my backyard backed into prairie. So I remember the first time I saw a "Prairie Dog town" and how amazing these little critters are. I could spend hours watching them!
I live on Esst coast but had a chance to go out to Colorado and see Rocky Mts. and other areas of the state. We were driving along and I.was taking in all that was new to me. An eighth of mile or so up the road I saw two rats run across the road. Soon as they got across app. 5 or 6 more crossed I started to mention them when 100 or more suddenly crossed over.
I said , " Sure are a lot of rats out here".
I heard my host laughing and turning giving her a what look.
She answered
Not rats, Prairie Dogs.
Well I d never seen one and they looked like rats crossing the road.
Beautiful state. P
Back in late 90s, in elementary I watched a documentary (a BBC,NHK collab dubbed in Filipino) about these cute little fellas. They were my introduction to true American wildlife. Since then, I'm hooked with nature documentaries.
Too bad that you did not see earlier wildlife films. Most of what you got and get today is 15 to twenty minutes of useful information and 40 to 45 minutes of misinformation and environmentalist pablum. (somewhat like this one) Even the Disney films did not show reality (nocturnal animals hunting in daytime for instance) while anthropormorphizing the animals. I had to give up on BBC they would just bounce around and not give you much detailed information on the subjects covered but were sure to add in the "Green" view. Earlier there were biologists who studied the animals and learned about them. Now they have to follow the PC story line or risk getting defunded, academically and socially attacked. (see some of the comments on this page for examples)
Nature is replete with boom and bust lifecycles. Ask Australians about mice last year.
And, though this video did not do it very much hunters, and sport fishermen, get bashed for destroying nature. Teddy Roosevelt was an avid hunter yet he was pivotal in creating national parks. And you can look up the Pittman-Robertson Act of 1937. It was supported by hunters and fisherman to put a tax on hunting and fishing equipment. That money goes back to the states to fund wildlife managment and habitat protection. It is still working today. One of the best ways to protect a species in the US is to have it listed as a game animal. Stopping hunting would be like outlawing soccer (football to the non US people) to protect soccer balls.
Too many urbanites, and quite a few others, have no concept of how nature works.
Prairie dog burrows act as water tunnels to replenish the water tables throughout the plains and high deserts. In fact, it’s their primary ecological service. By doing so root systems hold the moisture they need to grow flowers and grasses, which most plains and desert life rely on, such as humming birds. Now that prairie dog numbers are in decline, so too are the food sources for hundreds of bird species. They are not vectors of the plague back to people. If a cat or dog gets near the tunnels, then they can carry the plague back to owners. Because prairie dogs don’t associate with other species, they themselves are not vectors, but rather victims, and can die in droves from the invasive disease.
Why is nobody reading this...
@@marcoperon3934 because its bull. A prairie dogs burrows have a mound that keeps most moisture from going into the ground. Same as the rest of the bunk in this story. Fun fact richardsons ground squirrels and prairie dogs are canabalists. Their digging doesn't regenerate the soil as most of what they dig up isn't topsoils but clays and sand. As for the livestock issues if scientists actually talk they'd here they do cause trips and injuries. Pre european settlement prairie dogs were kept in check by the massive grass fires that sucked the oxygen from their burrows in dry years and plague outbreaks in wet. Since we have set up fire breaks the population has exploded and unless we hit a wet year the natural disease outbreaks haven't kept them in check. This has led to massive population spikes that because of poisons being heavily regulated (like strychnine) means we can't keep them under control. Since the control of prairie fires farmers and ranchers have fought to keep their population in check for over 100 years unsuccessfully. Don't let some pretty story fool you they are the rats of the plains.
@@audiosreality 100% correct, glad you wrote it so i didn't have to.
black footed ferrets, rattlesnakes and badgers also helped to keep their numbers down in some areas but like other predators were killed off.
@@isaal-magyari9203 badgers and rattlesnakes create their own issues but even ferrets couldn't kill enough to even slow a colony. Both my parents places had issues with prairie dogs and Richardson's ground squirrels. They simply can't kill more than the rodents reproduce. As soon as the colony's thined a tiny bit they move on and within a year the numbers rebuild
so... land beavers, cool.
My old science teacher actually had a prairie dog as a pet. She kept her in a pen in our class and would let her out when we left. I actually got to pet her, she was sweet and never bit anyone. This comment doesn't really relate to this video, just wanted to share a story about my experience with one of these little critters.
Humans are evil and will kill anything for fun.
It's absolutely ridiculous how many animals we have driven to extinction, and the carnage still hasn't stopped.
Humans are more important than animals. And these animals are a nuisance.
I have family in South Dakota. Believe me when I say they are incredibly destructive in large numbers.
@@andrewniehoff8612 and humans aren't? what have they destroyed on your family farm?
so many animals have survived or gone extinct based on how cute or scary they look to humans. it's interesting.
As much as people love to praise the native Americans for “living in harmony with wildlife” they killed all the American megafauna. Humans as a species are the most brutal killers in history, no matter where they come from.
@@ksprice45 name one place where the magafauna weren't wiped out? And if you really *praised* native americans for being "one with nature" prior to that knowledge then you're probably racist. Otherwise, I don't understand how that doesn't sound inherently silly to anyone who thinks like that.
@@earlyman7439 Africa.
@@ksprice45 The American Megafauna still exists. Hell most of them were killed by American settlers.
@@StuninRub there were larger animals than the current elephants, rhinos, and big cats. They're gone now. Whether through competition for similar food sources or hunting them directly, this happened everywhere.
this channel never disappoint..
loved the narration and cinematography..
keep it up
The plague in Europe was carried in by the camel trains of the Silk Road, and originated with Marmots on the same kind of grassland as this. The camel drivers were largely immune due to their constant contact with the marmots that populated their routes.
That's really interesting info, thanks!
I didn't know that. I must have read about or have seen documentaries about the black death a hundred times and never got that detail. I love little details about history like that that give context to the whole story.
I always thought that was true bout cows stepping in their holes. However it's not, more likely a reason just as a used to eradicate the prairie dog. Thank u for another great video. I always look forward to Friday mornings just for ur vids.
If cows died from holes they would have gone extinct a long time ago
The cows and horses could step in the holes, it isn't impossible just because there are no documents showing that. Though as you said, it was more likely just a reason.
I've never known for it to happen with prairie dog wholes either. They build there wholes up in such a way that the cows, horses, and donkeys can easily avoid them. Its probably WHY they build them up. After all you wouldn't want a 2 ton bison stepping in your home.
Nope, neither cows nor horses are that stupid. If ever it may only happen when they are galloping in a hurry.
Yeah, it's almost as if cows had eyes and control of their limbs.
I would have liked to hear about what kind of long term effects hotboxing their burrows with insecticide dust might have cause I mean... that can't be that great either right?
hey are obviously not healthy but it beats dying of the plague. medicine or preventative measures is usually all about risk management.
It's Diatomaceous earth. (duh)
Does not harm mammals. It's naturally occurring. It only works by dehydrating insects (including fleas) with exoskeletons.
It's considered low risk. It's NOT a poison. It's used to keep insects out of stored grain.
@@TheBandit7613 ahh thanks
Yeah, it's bad news for all other native insects, including ground-dwelling bees.
I watched a documentary about prairie dogs in the 90s produced by tv ontario in Canada. It's the first time I witnessed such creatures and it's amazing. I wonder what's the current situation of the prairies.
Still causing alot of destruction, almost as bad as the nitwits in Ottawa.
The prairies are getting ravaged by these harmful pests.
@@Slay_No_More agreed, humans have definitely destroyed a lot of prairie.
@@Slay_No_More We thought we got ahead of them after the die off in 2010 boy were we wrong. Last year I know 6 towns around here that had to start poisoning inside town limits. Ottawa's ban on strychnine has only made it worse.
Temperate grasslands are considered the MOST endangered ecosystem on the planet, yet people who seem to want extinction still label the keystone species of this ecosystem as 'pests.'
The place I grew up was absolutely lousy with prairie dogs. They were everywhere in crazy high numbers! I am always shocked when I hear them discussed as a species in trouble. I guess it must be only certain species that are in a bad place.
Or you lived somewhere with a higher population than the average
So what, maybe we humans should leave, instead of coming and exterminating everything. I hate humans
The Lakota may have lived with them because they didn't have horses until very recently. And id bet the ate a lot of them.
Five hundred years with horses is plenty of time to find a problem with prairie dogs if they were going to do so. They may well have eaten a lot of them, but not eradication-levels; there were plenty of other small animals that bred faster, such as rabbits. If the Lakota had any advantage that we don't have today, it's that the old landscape had a much more diverse plant population, and it would have been more obvious where a low-mowed burrow area was located. Today, most of the Great Plains, even range land, has only a few types of grass growing, and bare ground and brome are common enough to not stand out.
why don't you go find some Lakota and ask them? You might learn something and then you wont be so stupid.
The Navajo say that without prairie dogs, there will be no one to cry for the rain. Turns out prairie dog burrows increase the transpiration cycle... ie. create rain.
I just melted when the narrator told pups would come out to stretch and they showed a pup stretching in the most cutest way. Loved this awareness video. I've never heard of them, but certainly hope their numbers go up and their resistance to plague increases ♥️
Prairie dogs Explode💣 when hit with a rifle its quite spectacular. Nuisance plague rats.
yeah prairie dogs are fucking awesome lol sometimes a nuisance but most of the time they're fucking adorable
I used to blow those little cuties up every weekend.
We call them whistle pigs.
They eat each other
@@warriorofthewastelandrv9480 your mom explodes quite nicely too
Yeah the prairie dog babies come out in the spring to stretch well that is the ones that didn't get eaten by their mother since they have a ratio of infanticide of approximately 40%.
They have the plauge because rats that carried the virus introduced to the prairie dogs where it is nearly impossible to eradicate!
God make them for a reason.. not plague spreader..👍🏻
But i appreciate the people who spraying in their burrows to keep the generations of these cute prairie dogs alive👌🏻👌🏻
@TerraMater you never disappoints us.. make a series in hindi also..you will get more viewers and your message spreaders like DW hindi.. as around 2 Billion people of Asia understanding hindi.
#sudhaarsangm
Another problem with prairie dogs coming back from such a hit to their population decline is that they do not “breed like rabbits” like so many seem to think. They only go into estrus for around 1 hour per year! As far as I know, nobody has ever observed them breeding above ground so a burrow is a necessity. Also after giving birth, the lactating mothers go on a killing spree, searching for other mother’s young pups to kill and eat. Once the pups are above ground, the killing stops.
Because of these factors, prairie dogs are difficult to impossible to breed in captivity. They’re incredibly social but secretive with breeding and birthing pups so monitoring for breeding and health of pups would be difficult and if there is more than one female in the area (which there should be because they are so social they can quickly be depressed when alone!) you may end up losing all pups for the year because they’ve eaten them all!
I firmly believe these animals need to be saved to at least half of what they used to be. They are so incredible. They almost have a language. I’ve never seen an animal that has a different call to warn for each threat. It’s like they’re describing the threat to the rest of the town so that they know what’s coming. Truly fascinating!
Also do some more research, many animals have multiple calls to call out many things. Monkeys of all species, Wales, wolfs...the list is really vast.
They are invasive rodents the same as NYC rats. This video is full of inaccuracies. (lies)
Livestock are harmed by these rodents, they ruin the land by chewing the grasses too low. Invasive weeds then move in. And people did NOT give them the plague.
The plague is carried by fleas. Fleas don't normally bite people unless they have no other options. How many people do you know with fleas?
The video is full of lies. They didn't even mention the ferret which eats most prairie dogs.
@@mr.noneyabidness I mean I get it other species do but I’ve never experienced one as advanced as these guys. I work with them in a research setting indoors. I am always wearing a white gown and when they alarm (rarely because I’m always in there) it sounds the same every time, but when my boss who is taller than me, wearing the same clothes but is a different race is in there, they sound different. When the woman in charge of their research went to visit them wearing a blue gown, they made a call so different I ran inside to make sure nothing was wrong. They have incredible social structure and if you take time to watch them I’m sure you would appreciate that without just going “other animals do it too.” Cause yes, others do. But they aren’t the same.
They’re in captivity because they were in a place that they could not stay, a soon to be parking lot. I wish they could be released to the wild but at this point they can’t. They will not breed in captivity. Only once in years have I observed “mating like behavior” from one of the males. He was just following a female around annoying her. Nothing ever came from it.
@@TheBandit7613 prairie dogs are NOT invasive. Most grasses grown in pastures are NOT native so them chewing down grasses most likely is actually allowing native “weeds” to grow in.
About the plague, most any animal that gets fleas can carry it. That’s not an argument for anything really.
And prairie dogs high species numbers are actually very important for keeping the black footed ferret from extinction. They are critically endangered and if their main food source is gone, they’re done. Many other species would struggle without them too. Coyotes and hawks would be moving on to our chickens and house cats even more than they already do.
@@okiadventure6031 if you have them in your yard I am sure you can call animal control or a wildlife rehabilitation place and they will relocate them. That’s how the prairie dogs I care for went under my care.
They most definitely do not breed like most rodents. All species reproduce “exponentially” so if you have a lot of females you will see a lot of babies but you only see them once a year and if you say you see them more than that you are lying. You don’t know how many were born and never made it out of the burrows. If you can give me a count of the amount that were born and made it to adulthood AND lived long enough to reproduce then that would be helpful to your argument. They can’t help their habitat is dying and what’s left is being overrun by cattle pastures. They’re just trying to survive just like every other species.
Funny how you didn't mention that hunters are the biggest conservationists for prairie dogs. That's what is truly "problematic".
I know that hunting does put much money into public land protection, but ranchers also graze on public lands & support mass killing even on National Grasslands. How do you think hunters support prairie dogs in particular? I'm genuinely interested because I support ethical hunting for food & family.
I've hit one of these guys at 450 yards with a .22-250.
Animals hurting their legs in holes is not a myth. A baby cow in the field neighboring mine broke its leg in one. Also, there were so many on my property that they would run around in my back yard eating all of the plants. After one bit my dogs face I started shooting them.
👆👌
Went camping at the Badlands in November and my campsite was in a prairie dog town. Coolest experience ever
Sage Creek Campground
What caliber did you use?
My favorite phrase growing up “I’m Prairie Doggin’ right now” 😂
Prairie dogs should be saved from extinction
I can't wait to book my hunting trip. I'm going to use a large caliber so I can blow them in half.
On my trip to America (from Australia), I saw Prairie Dogs in Alberqueque and thought they were cool as hell.
disgusting how human greed is killing everything on earth
Throughout history, RANCHERS have been the main killers of prairie dogs, and most other animals throughout most of the West, either directly or through ranching's destructive effects. They still are.
I go out and kill about 300 of things every year... I’m not a rancher either so stfu
@@loganthesaint You are so fucking cool!!!
Ranchers are also always psychopaths. The stupidest, most arrogant sort of spoiled pricks the world has ever known. Just look around the comment section, anyone claiming to be a rancher will be a stupid, know it all idiot, racist and probably swingers too.
@@voidremoved Nothing says "intelligent" like over generalized statements and prejudice against the people who are responsible for putting food on your table. And this is coming from a Native American, we used to hunt them too. Don't let this "feel good" story lie to you. We never lived in "harmony" with them.
Ranching destructive effects? Because refineries and skyscrapers aren’t destructive?
Wonder if the people who worry about the prairie dogs shooting do the same for rabbit, squirrels, pheasants, ducks, geese, deer and other "game" animals? But few worry about the beef, pork and chickens they eat.🤣
Will no one talk about the cute, cuddly rats that inhabit our cities?
Funny thing perspective, isn't it? And cockroaches are kinda cute in the right light and angle.
i love rat and mouse
Not to diss native rats, but do you call all squirrels rats?
@@asktheanimals I eat squirrels.
@@allenatkins2263 , yes, squirrels are edible.
ok your spreading misinformation yes prairie dogs are pests they eat your crops so don't make them out to be these cute adorable things that do no wrong they ruin crops but I'm not trying to say we should kill them all that's stupid and you said native Americans lived in harmony which is not true they also ate there crops to and were hunted to but they did know when to stop hunting them and also just because there are 2 percent left doesn't mean that there are almost none left that's like saying there 1 trillion and there's 2 percent left that still mean there's 20,000,000,000 I'm not saying there's that many left I'm saying that's an example of how that works I'm not saying that we should continue hunting them we do need to let there populations rise but don't start spreading misinformation and most of the land they had is now farm or residential areas so they cant inhabit that land or get to that used to be population but the population can get bigger than what it is now and I'm not trying to hate on your video it was really well put together but don't spread misinformation and we also shouldn't let our emotions dictate what we do animals are going to get killed were going to hunt them always but there should be regulations and you say what we have done to them we did nothing our ancestors did and don't act like its just use the Americans its happened thru out history its not just Americans
Love these little guys! And great vid as always!
they make great pets, and i've had 2. friendly, amusing and fun to watch, they usually want to sleep next to you in bed.
They are so cute! I can't imagine why people shoot them for entertainment.
Enough people like shooting and killing something for entertainment.
Because their brain is empty and they need something to cope with. If they were smart and had important things to do. They would not be killing other beings.
it's a masculinity thing, guys using living creatures for target practice, bragging about their shooting and killing ability, spreading toxic lead all over and caring not at all for nature's balance.
It's not so much entertainment as trying to protect your livelihood (don't believe the bs the narrator says about not causing injuries or alot of what she claims) They are destructive and a colony can grow to the point of stripping the grass from livestock. Those "cute" animals you see on the video are also cannibals. The hundreds of hours spent trying to keep the population in check on farms and ranches every year would be better spent on other things but it has to be done or they can and will strip pastures bare. Anyone could make a video about how cute, non destructive and clean city rats were but an urbanite doesn't believe that. Well these are prairie rats with a bogus video on how "adorable "they are not the actual truth.
Most do because they have been told that they are harmful to the pastures
Americans don't let them meet the same fate of other extinct animals. You will highly regret it.
why would you shoot such sweet creatures?
Because most people are evil and disturbed inside their souls. You are a rare personality not to enjoy destruction of wild living creatures natural habitat these days. The governments encourage habitat destruction and wildlife decimation. It keeps people dependant on their handouts.
@@inharmonywithearth9982 maybe you are just too emotional and sensitive…propaganda really does a number on weak minded leftists like you…the only people who are truly sad and evil are ones like you. Keep thinking your above the system when you are actually biggest slave of them all you bot.
Prairie dogs are one of those things that ranchers complain about, even tho every scientific paper states the do more good for cattle than harm. There’s not a single documented case of cattle breaking ankles in prairie dog holes. At the same time they kill foxes, coyotes, and every single other predator in a 50 mile radius.
Beef is such a waste of land anyways. If Americans would just eat pork and chicken instead of beef, it would be way better for the environment.
Your one of those people calling on humanity to switch to eating bugs, aren't you?
No their pasts their not needed for the environment that makes them pests especially not in the numbers that they're in
These puppies are so cute 😍😍😍
Can we please end the "noble savage living in perfect harmony with nature" trope when discussing Native Americans? It's pure romantic fiction.
They didnt hunt buffalo, prairie dogs, or any other known animal to extinction. They also had a direct democracy government & thier women had way more rights than European women at that time.
@@jacobhoover1654 They didn't have the tech to cause extinction. Driving buffalo herds off cliffs, taking what was needed, and leaving the rest to rot was a thing. As were raids where women captives were taken, raped and held as slaves or forcibly married.
Read more books.
@@YSLRD animals hunt other animals to extinction all the time, you don't need "tech." Besides, Native Americans had spears & bow & arrow which is more than enough to hunt anything into extinction. Also, almost all species have instances of rape, your comment was pointless & means nothing.
@@stormienormie4516 I never said they were hippies, I said they had democracy & women's rights before Europeans, you should probably learn to read.
@@stormienormie4516 many tribes were matriarchal as well. Humans as a species are war like, it's not unique to the N.A. crime on reservations isn't indicative of anything, if you wage war on a people and drive them onto reservations of course they is going to be crime, we (Americans) completely turned thier society upside down, what did you think would happen? Did you expect these reservations to be utopias? You are coming across as racist fyi.
Big ounce will be the spearhead of the prairie dog repopulation
The best way we can help the prairie dogs or in general the nature is to just leave it alone.
So the poison dust doesn't do anything to them I find that unlikely
SAVE THE PRAIRIE DOGS
Cute
I get hunting to eat. But shooting animals to just go for high scores is a disgusting hobby. Considering they are not invasive or anything like that.
You'll say not invasive when a squirrel chews through your roof
@@dirtroad4229 that's not how that works
@@comradesillyotter1537 Squirrels are just rats with fluffy tails. By nature they want to move into your nest, chew it up & poop everywhere.
That is by definition Invasive, regardless of what the official biology jargon is.
My rule of thumb is if you’re not hunting out of necessity, you have no business hunting at all. Otherwise, you’re just another poacher who is either greedy and wants money or is sadistic by killing animals for kicks. I also never like it when some hunters pose for a picture next to the animals they kill. It doesn’t scream “brave and mighty hunter” to me, but “deranged lunatic who needs to be in a mental hospital.”
@@andrewyerian214 you’ve never hunted in your life you sally little girl trying to be peoples moral compass…gtfoh
So insecticides save the day once again . Please explain how humans brought a prairie dog disease to prairie dogs. Ranchers knew when there were millions of dogs the holes were a problem and now when you say they are almost extinct the holes are no problem?
The Bubonic Plague began somewhere in Asia and hadn't even struck everywhere in Europe by the time Columbus arrived in the Caribbean. Pretty obvious it arrived with humans, the germ wasn't native to the Americas.
I have had 2 different horses break legs in woodchuck holes. But those holes are considerably bigger.
Ppl who hunt prairie dogs are cowards
I just love how people can watch one you tube video and form an expert opinion instead of listening to someone with years of experience.
Right haha 😂
Great video btw your video quality super good, it's really high quality. The prairie dogs are so cute and i love how well they are being protected from the plague 🦬 ( i couldn't find a prairie dog emoji so i put a bison one)
You call them "PRAIRIE DOGS", while others call them "MARMOTS OR MARMOTAS", and still others call them "GROUND HOGS",
re-calling the GROUND HOG DAY, in which exactly the same things just keep happening day after day, and you start to wonder,
ARE THEY MARMOTAS, ARE THEY MARMOTS, ARE THEY PRAIRIE DOGS, OR ARE THEY GROUND HOGS, that just keep doing
the same things day-in day-out? Are they putting stuff in the coffee? Are they putting stuff in the milk? Are they putting stuff in
the food? Are they putting stuff in the cafe? Are they putting stuff in the restaurant? Are they putting stuff if the grocery store?
Are they putting stuff in butchers? Are they putting stuff in the salt? Are they putting stuff in the condiments? Are they putting
stuff in the sauces? Are they putting stuff in the sandwiches? Are they putting stuff in the donuts? Are they putting stuff in the
cakes? Are they putting stuff in the water? Are they putting stuff in the beers? ARE THEY PUTTING AN END TO YOUR ENERGY?
AND ULTIMATELY, ARE THEY PUTTING AN END TO YOUR LIFE, ARE THEY PUSHING POWDERS AND DROPS TILL FLAT-LINERS?
HOGS, DOGS AND MARMOTAS, CALL THEM WHAT YOU WILL, GROUND HOG DAY IS JUST POISON DAY, EVERY DAY. THIS IS
THE ULTIMATE IN COWARDICE, THIS IS THEIR RELIGION, THIS IS THEIR CULT, THIS IS 2500 YEARS OF THEIR GENOCIDE
CULT, WHERE THEY POISON, AND UNLEASH BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS UPON UNSUSPECTING NEIGHBORING PEOPLES.
Due to the arid climate of the Midwest and the lack of game animals to hunt, I bet the early settlers used them as a food source, just as they did with squirrels in the eastern states.
Actually no, you'd have to be pretty starved to eat prairie dog (like vultures) because of disease risk and the cannibalistic nature (think rats a food source only in times of extreme starvation) even old rhymes warn of the hazards "great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts". In the plains you had large numbers of better choices then you did in the Appalachian region in an easier hunting ground then forested mountains.
It's Saskatchewan not Sasketchewan
Leave prairie dogs alone!
I have a friend that went on a prairie dog hunt last year in South Dakota, got 125 !
Would have got more but was windy and he ran out of ammo
Said it was great fun
I’m thinking about going with him next time since I got a new scope for my heavy barrel AR15
Going to shoot that friend? I would too. Shooting animals but not eating them is a waste.
@@padmanabhanvaidyanathan7182 why would I want to shoot my friend?
Such a typical American story. Stereotype, propaganda and then attack until extinction. Hunt for fun. Disrupt the environment. Weird vocabulary - calling a rodent a dog. What more is there to say?
The Lakota lived in harmony with the prairie dogs?!!1 Not if they drove around on horses. Horses do NOT like prairie dogs because of the burrows they dig. A horse can step into a partially filled burrow opening tunnel or straight thru into a connecting tunnel and break their leg. That is a death sentence for the horse unfortunately because the break causes an infection that is carried by the blood stream all thruought the body and it is an ugly way to die. Same with the buffalo, they are worried about breaking their legs, who wouldn't be? Interstingly the horses and the buffalo go about dealing with these rodents and their bone-breaking burrows in different ways.
The buffalo, or American Bison are generally bigger than horses, just not as tall. They can wegh 1500 - 2000 lbs easy, horses are around 1200 full grown. To generate that kind of weight the bison eat a lot more grass than the horses and there is the first clue to how they deal with the prairie dog problem. The bison leave a huge amount of waste from all that chewed grass, it is commonly known as a prairie patty, cow pie, buffalo blintzes, buffalo chips, lots of names, but the important part here is that they are big, there are millions made each day and they set up hard in the sun when dry. Think concrete made of spinach. The buffalo meet at the edge of a prairie dog town, make a line by standing shoulder to shoulder and walk across the town filling the holes to the prairie dog burrows with their green ceement. As each buffalo finishes another takes its place. It is a slow process and may take all day to cover an area the size of a football field. And some buffalo still manager to break a leg in a burrow someone else missed. They get the job done, but slowly.
The horses are impatient, have other things to do and have come to realize buffalo are nervous animals and are prone to just taking off on a full run if even one in a thousand gets spooked and begins to jog. The horses figured out a few years back to stand behind the biggest group f buffalo as they begin their hole patching duties and suddenly rear up, screaming as loud as possible and maybe kick a few buffalo that don''t get the hint. The buffalo take off and it is like a tsunami of meat rolling across the prairie, still filling holes but running flat out as they go. Many buffalo get their legs stuck on the holes and don't go any farther. The horses wait an hour for the buffalo chips to harden and cross the prairie dog town as fast as they want and simply to dodge the buffalo, plugging in the holes one way or another. Both the buffalo and the horses don't understand why the buffalo don't catch on to this trick.
Can you do a video on how emus won the war?
EtA: in Australia
I am learning from your videos. Thank you! 🙏
Great target practice. 👌