Black-tailed Prairie Dog

Range and Distribution

Habitat

Life History and Reproduction

Prairie dogs and humans

Status

Literature Cited

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South Dakota is home to half of the black-tailed prairie dog population, while Wyoming and Montana are also home to large populations. The black-tailed prairie dog has been completely extirpated from Arizona. (National Wildlife Federation 1999)

In Texas, black-tailed prairie dogs can be found in the western third of the state and the Panhandle (Davis and Schmidly 1994).

Black-tailed prairie dogs live in "towns" or colonies that can range in size from less than an acre to several thousand acres. The largest recorded town was reported in 1905, and reportedly extended from San Angelo to Clarendon, covering approximately 25,000 square miles, and containing about 400 million prairie dogs (Choate 1997). While populations of black-tailed prairie dogs in Texas likely numbered about 800 million around 1900, eradication efforts have reduced the population to less than two million (Van Pelt 1999).

Black-tailed prairie dog range map

Texas range map