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"[J]ust above the entrance of Teapot creek on the star'd side there is a large assemblage of the burrows of the Barking Squirrel." -- Meriwether Lewis
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The abundant black-tailed prairie dogs and their lives underground fascinated Lewis and Clark. Whistling from their sentry posts at the burrow mouths, the animals seemed to call to the explorers. Clark caught one by pouring water into its tunnel. Lewis dug ten feet down into a burrow but still didn't reach the bottom.
The explorers made the first scientific observations of the prairie dogs, which they called "barking squirrels." They noted the animals as they first entered South Dakota and commented on their behavior, from the warning cries that were like those of "little toy dogs" to their habit of living in small family groups within a larger colony.
Lewis was so charmed by the prairie dog that he shipped a live one to President Jefferson. The animal survived the four-month journey from North Dakota to Washington, D.C., by barge and ship, and Jefferson got to see firsthand the "barking squirrel" of the plains.
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Some biologists estimate that prairie dogs once numbered 5 billion, roughly as many animals as were in the famous flocks of passenger pigeons. Now, prairie dogs are candidates for protection under the Endangered Species Act. In the late 1800s, prairie-dogs towns covered 100 million acres, but now the animals inhabit only 1 percent of their former range. The approximately 1 million acres of prairie-dog colonies remaining in the short-grass and mixed-grass prairies of the Great Plains are increasingly fragmented by urban sprawl, roads, and agricultural conversion.
Since prairie dogs eat grass and clip stalks around their burrows, some ranchers view them as competition for their livestock. Deemed a pest, the prairie dogs are poisoned and shot. Research now shows that rather than depleting grass, prairie dogs spur grass growth and are compatible with livestock grazing. Unregulated sport shooting further reduces prairie-dog numbers. Both state and federal governments subsidize eradication of prairie dogs, triggering the loss of entire prairie communities.
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