What Dental Plan?…by Brad Marks

Greetings everyone! Things are starting to rev up around here as we approach the 6 week mark before our annual Halloween Event (link here). It also means I’m about a week from getting very little sleep until the haunt is over. Adding to the chaos, my second 100k attempt is just two weeks after (Bri shall not fail again – link here). Basically when not finishing up the multitude of props that have been in construction since January, I’ll be pounding out miles and miles on the trails. As you would suspect, we are going to be relying heavily on Brad to make up for my limited availability. He has been working like a “black-tailed” dog over the past several months putting posts in the Intrigued queue that will surely keep you entertained. There is one to-do that needs to be addressed before the chaos begins and that is to sneak over to Farmdale and cut down a notoriously evil tree. While the saw chips fly, I’ll let Brad get into the swing of things.

Take it away Brad…

In retirement, Jan and I are trying to check off as many National Parks as we can.  We were almost finished planning a trip to see our daughter, Allyson, in Denver this past April when we asked what else she wanted to do while we were there.  We try to pick a location or activity Allyson has not done yet because it’s all new to us.  We offered the southwest, since it is, after all, April in Colorado.  She quickly said she’d like to see Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills again.  We said “Punkin’, it’s April in South Dakota, some stuff might not be open yet.  It could be snowy and cold.”  Allyson said she didn’t care and that Alec (her boyfriend) hadn’t been to the Black Hills yet.  After spending the night near Denver, Jan and I picked up Allyson and Alec and started the 5 ½ hour journey to the Black Hills.

While we were there, we wanted to make the most of the location, you know, getting our money’s worth from our Annual National Park Pass.  We decided to add Devils Tower National Monument to our trip.

Literally, seconds after entering the official park boundary, I hear from the back seat, “Dad!  Dad!  Dad!  Dad!  Dad!  Stop the car!” 

Hit the jump to find out the reason for the excitement!

“Prairie dogs!”

Being the doting father that I am, I stopped the car at the nearest safe pull-off area.  As soon as we opened the car doors, I could hear the prairie dog alert system in full volume.  The cacophony of chips and barks was amazing.  With all of the noise, it’s a wonder any of them really know what’s going on.  Turns out, it’s a very complicated game of “telephone.”  The sentries flank the “trouble” and keep barking (probably where the “dog” in their name comes from) until the threat clears.  While others will stand up to look around to watch for other danger, most will retreat to the nearest burrow until the danger passes.

The National Park Service has a great description of the prairie dog alert system:

Black-tailed prairie dogs have at least 11 distinct calls and a variety of postures and displays. When a prairie dog detects danger, it retreats to a burrow mound and gives a series of short nasal-type yips as a warning. Nearby prairie dogs stop what they are doing, stand on their hind legs, and look for the source of danger. If there is no danger, the prairie dogs will come out and give a “jump-yip” call to reclaim their territory.

Prairie dogs, or more accurately Black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus), only live in fine- or medium-textured soil.  Soil, known by its more common name is . . . dirt.  Devils Tower is a somewhat unique location because the entire area seemed to be phonolite porphyry, a fine-grained igneous rock similar in sturdiness to granite in my opinion.  Except for these few acres populated by holes in the ground.  BTW, Devils Tower is one of the largest, if not the tallest, and most famous examples of columnar jointing in the world.  Imagine using your fork to striate the side of a pile of mashed potatoes and you get the general idea. 

At first, I didn’t know where to point the camera, there was action everywhere I turned.  I must have parked near the middle of a large colony that spanned the road.

I’d seen prairie dogs before in limited neighborhoods, equivalent to a small subdivision.  But in this case, we seemed to have stumbled into a prairie dog metropolis.  There were dozens and dozens of burrows on either side of the road.  Prairie dog communities have been known to have up to 50 burrow entrances per acre of ground.  The burrows are all connected via dozens of tunnels dug three to six feet beneath the surface. 

Prairie dogs are covered in a luxurious fur that nearly perfectly matches the color of the soil where they live.  Great camouflage if no one can easily see you.  You’d think they would be trim and fit because of their diet and all of the running around.  And you’d be mostly right.  A full-grown adult weighs up to 3 pounds and is 14-17 inches long, including their short tail.  In comparison, my 200-500mm lens weighs just over 5 pounds and is 17 inches long fully extended

Prairie dogs aren’t really “dogs”, but rodents, or if you like, large burrowing squirrels.  To call them “ground squirrels” conjures up images of those cute little multi-striped critters that “chip” around gardens in suburbia.  Prairie dogs are herbivorous, which explains why there is usually little vegetation near the burrows.

While cute for tourists, prairie dogs can be an expensive nuisance for farmers and ranchers.  The obvious challenge comes from the prairie dogs eating all of the greenery anywhere near their burrows.  Minimal ground cover makes it hard for livestock to find enough food for grazing.  Secondarily, they can be a physical threat to large livestock.  Not from the dogs themselves, but from their burrows.  If a cow or a horse accidentally steps into a burrow opening, the animal may break a leg and have to be put down.

And as a rodent, their large front teeth grow continuously.  To keep them worn down to a manageable length, prairie dogs need to continuously eat roughage like grass and leafy vegetation.  They will occasionally snack on grasshoppers and other bugs.  Prairie dogs don’t need to drink water because their diet provides all the water they need.  A few had used an alternative method to keep their teeth in check; chewing on asphalt.  Craptastic dental plan.

We saw at least two burrow entrances carved into the edges of the road where we were standing.  I’m not sure if the burrow was there first and the asphalt collapsed around it, or if the prairie dogs dug up to the road from beneath and chewed their way out.  I’m guessing you have to spit that stuff out, right?!

When the DON (Department of Obvious Names) came up with the name for these prairie dogs, I think they may have missed by a little bit.  The name “black-tailed” makes one think of, well, a black tail.  The “dogs” we saw had only a few tufts of black hairs on their tail.  Maybe they were freshly washed and detailed.  “Black-toothed” may have been more appropriate because of the asphalt chewing thing.

This P-dog, tucked safely into the burrow opening, was within a few paces of my car.  It kept turning 180 degrees to bark and then listen.  Turn.  Repeat.  It almost seemed like it was counting in its head:   bark-two-three-turn, bark-two-three-turn.  I think it was really trying to get me to capture its good side.  The alarms eventually silenced and everyone seemed to go about their regularly scheduled prairie dog business.

Right about then I noticed how cold my fingers were getting.  We had jumped straight out of the car, no jackets, hats or gloves.  Even though it was late April in northeast Wyoming, a freak weather system had dropped temps to near the freezing mark.  Time to get back into the car to warm up a bit, and go see what we actually came to see:  Devils Tower.

As we said goodbye to the prairie dogs and headed up the mountain, Allyson said she wanted to take one home as a pet.  We said that probably wouldn’t be a good idea as they might terrorize their cats, or vice versa.  And she would have burrows all over the apartment.

Thank you for reading.  If you want to see more wildlife photos from our National Park trips, please visit here.

Credits:

Thanks again to Jan and Allyson for proofreading and editing.  Thanks to Jan for some of the photos in this article.