Prairie Dog Pals

Dedicated to the Preservation of Prairie Dogs and their Habitat

Prairie Dogs Are Cute, But Can They Talk?

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It’s a great article, and the prairie dogs are fascinating (and adorable) little creatures, but with all due respect to Doctor Dolittle, the assertion that non-human animals have language is indeed nonsense.

Animals have no language, despite the occasional complexity of their communication. The error these scientists and journalists make in attributing language to animals is an easy error to make, but it is an error nonetheless. The error lies in the failure to distinguish between designators and signals.

Read More:  Language

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Expansion of prairie dog vaccine proposed

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Use of an oral vaccine that protects prairie dogs from the plague will be expanded on the Charles M. Russell and UL Bend National Wildlife Refuges in Montana under a plan proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The new plan would allow for vaccine distribution on wilderness areas within the refuges and on nearby private lands when requested by landowners. The Service has completed an environmental assessment for the action and is seeking public comment on the proposal.

Read more:  Vaccine

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Grief in Prairie Dogs: Mourning a Death in the Family

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Grief and mourning are more widespread among nonhuman animals (animals) than previously thought (please also see). Today, while riding my bike north of Boulder, I observed an interaction between an adult Black-tailed prairie dog who looked to be a female and a youngster who had been killed by a car. It looked like the accident had happened a few minutes before I happened on the sorrowful scene. I was astounded by what I saw, so I stopped and dictated some notes into my phone that went as follows:

I just watched an adult prairie dog who I think is a female trying to retrieve the carcass of a smaller prairie dog off the road five times – she clearly was trying to remove the carcass from the road – I stopped and finally after the cars stopped she dragged the carcass off the road, walked about 10 feet away, looked at me and looked at the carcass, went back to the carcass and touched it lightly with her forepaws, and walked away emitting a very high-pitched vocalization.

I waited a few minutes to see if she would go back to the carcass and she began to move toward it, looked at me, and stopped — so I left because I didn’t want to disrupt her saying good-bye if that was what she was going to do  — minutes later, when I finally caught up with another rider who was about 100 meters ahead of me, he told me he saw her try to remove the carcass from the road twice.

 

Read more:  Mourn

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Burrowing Owls, Pulex irritans, and Plague.

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This message contains search results from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). Do not reply directly to this message

Sent on: Sat Apr 22 08:14:51 2017

1 selected item: 26367482

PubMed Results

Item 1 of 1    (Display the citation in PubMed)

1. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2015 Sep;15(9):556-64. doi: 10.1089/vbz.2015.1772. Epub 2015 Sep 14.

Belthoff JR1, Bernhardt SA2, Ball CL3, Gregg M4, Johnson DH5, Ketterling R6, Price E7, Tinker JK7.

Author information:

11 Department of Biological Sciences and Raptor Research Center, Boise State University , Boise, Idaho.22 Department of Biology, Utah State University , Logan, Utah.33 Idaho Bureau of Laboratories , Boise, Idaho.44 US Fish and Wildlife Service, Mid-Columbia River National Wildlife Refuge Complex , Burbank, Washington.55 Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho and Global Owl Project , Alexandria, Virginia.66 Idaho Bureau of Laboratories and Idaho State University , Boise, Idaho.77 Department of Biological Sciences, Boise State University , Boise, Idaho.

Abstract

Western Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) are small, ground-dwelling owls of western North America that frequent prairie dog (Cynomys spp.) towns and other grasslands. Because they rely on rodent prey and occupy burrows once or concurrently inhabited by fossorial mammals, the owls often harbor fleas. We examined the potential role of fleas found on burrowing owls in plague dynamics by evaluating prevalence of Yersinia pestis in fleas collected from burrowing owls and in owl blood. During 2012-2013, fleas and blood were collected from burrowing owls in portions of five states with endemic plague-Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and South Dakota. Fleas were enumerated, taxonomically identified, pooled by nest, and assayed for Y. pestis using culturing and molecular (PCR) approaches. Owl blood underwent serological analysis for plague antibodies and nested PCR for detection of Y. pestis. Of more than 4750 fleas collected from owls, Pulex irritans, a known plague vector in portions of its range, comprised more than 99.4%. However, diagnostic tests for Y. pestis of flea pools (culturing and PCR) and owl blood (PCR and serology) were negative. Thus, even though fleas were prevalent on burrowing owls and the potential for a relationship with burrowing owls as a phoretic host of infected fleas exists, we found no evidence of Y. pestis in sampled fleas or in owls that harbored them. We suggest that studies similar to those reported here during plague epizootics will be especially useful for confirming these results.
PMID: 26367482 [Indexed for MEDLINE]
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