grasslands Archives - Prairie Dog Pals

From the Billings Gazette:

In a recent article on prairie dogs, it is mentioned that their main purpose in the world is to feed other plains animals, provide homes for owls and plague the herds, fields and wallets of ranchers and farmers. While all of these functions are legitimate, it did not mention the main importance of prairie dogs.

Long before trappers, explorers and settlers arrived, much of the prairie had already been formed — not by cattle or hikers who didn’t stay on the trail, but by millions of animals, namely buffalo, elk and deer. These animals, in incredible herds that now only exist in hunters dreams, nearly deforested the entire Midwest. The buffalo also have another purpose in plains ecology: to wallow. Wallowing is when a buffalo rolls around on its back, creating a depression in the ground. This depression allowed water to collect, providing water for other animals and allowing plant life to flourish. It also allows water to flow directly to the water table. Without these massive herds, the water falls onto hard ground and quickly evaporates.

Prairie dogs dig their burrows, sometimes 50 holes an acre, all across the plains. These burrows go down several feet, letting rain water flow directly to roots of the grass. It also allows water to replenish the water table and underground aquifers. Now that water levels are dropping and Western cities are growing nervous, prairie dogs will need to have large numbers to balance human water use by replenishing our ground water systems and underground aquifers.