Why Restore Prairie Dogs and Their Ecosystems?

Prairie dogs, cattle, and other livestock can co-exist on grasslands in the majority of well-managed parcels. One of the strongest historical pieces of evidence for coexistence is that prairie dogs evolved alongside another large herbivore: bison. These two animals benefited from each other’s presence, rather than competing.

Many also worry about the risk of livestock injury. However, burrows usually have large mounds around entrances, making them easy for livestock to avoid. The small risk presented by burrows is a manageable one and does not justify wholesale extermination of prairie dogs.

It is not easy for prairie dogs to transmit plague to people. Plague is transmitted through the bites of infected fleas, not prairie dogs themselves. Prairie dog fleas are very host-specific and therefore generally avoid humans and other animals (Cully et al., 2006).

Regardless, people should not handle dead (or live) prairie dogs or other wild animals, unless your job involves this work. Further, staying on trails to keep yourself and pets off of prairie dog towns both avoids disturbing wildlife and eliminates the small risk of fleabites. If dead prairie dogs or other dead rodents are discovered, the local wildlife agency and/or health department should be notified.

Prairie dogs are also not known to contract rabies or hantavirus. While they can contract other diseases such as tularemia or plague, in either case they die from these diseases and therefore cannot be carriers.

Monkeypox was first identified in some prairie dogs that were to be sold as pets, where they were exposed to imported infected African rats. Monkeypox is not present in wild prairie dog populations.

Overall, the odds of prairie dogs spreading diseases to humans are incredibly low, and in many cases, risk is exaggerated from misinformation. Therefore, risk of disease does not justify the widespread extermination of prairie dog colonies.

Prairie dogs are able to persist and even thrive in areas where land degradation from past human land use has left invasive, non-native vegetation. Prairie dogs are often highly visible in such areas, leading to the misconception that their presence is the cause of the degradation. However, this line of thinking is quickly changing. In fact, the willingness of landowners to coexist with and preserve native species is a sign of respect for the integrity of the native grassland rather than a sign of neglect.

In some places, like Boulder County, CO, prairie dogs may appear to be abundant and expanding. However, prairie dogs have declined considerably since the early 1900s across the plains, with most species occupying less than five percent of their historic range. Extermination, plague, land conversion, hunting, and lack of regulatory control are all contributors to their decline.