I spent some time in a prairie dog towns both Monday and Wednesday, and the whole time I was there a sentinel dog kept his eye on me.
This prairie dog was looking out of the hole that was closest to me. It barely moved the whole time I was there–both times. The prairie dogs that came out of their holes were the ones that were farthest from me.
This shows the general situation: the prairie dogs are putting on fat for winter, and they are stuffing food into their mouths as fast as they can. These are photos of three different prairie dogs over two days.
Here we have a left hand stuffing food in
right hand at work
and again a left handed assist.
One more time: a right handed rodent,
a left handed rodent,
and a left handed rodent again.
They don’t have opposable thumbs, but they sure do use their hands.
Hi,
Love your blog. I live in ND and we too have prairie dogs. Many people around here do not like them at all and I find it incredibly disappointing. When we moved into our house this past summer, we had 3 pups who lived in our backyard, and our cat loved to watch them (she is an inside cat whew:), but lately I haven’t seen them around..probably for about 3 months now…miss them. So, thanks for sharing your pics…love to see them in action.
Erica
these pictures remind me of my cat….adorable and loves food!
Thanks so much for letting us know how prairie dogs help us through their work as part of the ecosystem. And I never saw such adorable prairie dog photos.
We must allow to recover more of their range. Kudoes to Erica above, who appreciated having them live in her yard. I hope you find them all okay Erica.