Meet our featured animal, the black-tailed prairie dog!

Here are five facts about black-tailed prairie dogs:

• Prairie dogs live in small, close-knit families called coteries.
• Groups of neighboring coteries form a prairie dog colony.
• Prairie dogs communicate with each other through barking. They can describe a predator by varying the frequency and pitch of their barks.
• Prairie dogs perform jump-yip calls, in which they stand on the mound, throw their head back, and let out a high-pitched bark, sometimes evening toppling onto their backs due to the exertion.
• Although they once numbered in the hundreds of millions, prairie dog populations are now estimated at around 10-20 million.

Learn more about prairie dogs >