cynomys leucurus
Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge, CO
Thursday, April 8, 2021 — 12:58 pm
I drove to Wyoming to see Greater Sage-Grouse and deliberately chose a route that would take me through this refuge. I expected more of a marshy wetland, but the part of the refuge through which I drove on the tour road was prairie potholes and dry flatlands.
In one footfall-field size patch of short vegetation, I spotted a prairie dog. I knew from past reading that there were other species besides the Black-tailed Prairie Dogs common around Colorado Springs, so I took a longer look and saw that it had a white tip on the tail and dark patches on its cheeks.
It was foraging in the open until, suddenly, it plopped on its back in a depression, squiggled around for a few seconds, and then ran about 30 yards before just as suddenly stopping and browsing again. I saw five or six others, although the holes were more scattered than usual with Black-tailed Prairie Dogs. Wyoming Ground Squirrels were in the same habitat — I later read online that the species compete and that the prairie dogs will chase down and even kill the ground squirrels.
