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56 results for “prairie dog”
Pino Gate Prairie Dog Study: Mound-scale Vegetation Plot Data from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (2000-2002)
Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) are considered keystone species of grassland ecosystems, and co-occur in the arid grasslands of the southwestern United States and in Mexico. Their keystone status is attributed primarily to the effects of their burrowing and foraging behavior, but they differ ecologically in several important respects. We studied the comparative functional roles of these species where they co-occur at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, focusing on their impacts on grassland vegetation. We found that vegetation cover, structure, and species richness varied across a gradient extending out from the mound centers, and these patterns differed between prairie dog and kangaroo rat mounds. Certain species and functional groups of plants associated differentially with mounds and landscape patches occupied by prairie dogs and banner-tailed kangaroo rats. Where both species co-occurred locally there was greater soil disturbance, more organic material from their feces, and higher activity of other animals. The overall effect of these rodents was to create a mosaic of different patches across the landscape such that their combined activities increased landscape heterogeneity and plant species richness. Our results demonstrate complementary effects of two co-occurring keystone species on their associated biotic communities.
Pino Gate Prairie Dog Study: Landscape-scale Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Plot Data from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (2000-2001)
Keystone species have large impacts on community and ecosystem properties, and create important ecological interactions with other species. Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.), and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) are considered keystone species of grassland ecosystems, and create a mosaic of unique habitats on the landscape. These habitats are known to attract a number of animal species, but little is known about how they affect arthropod communities. Our research evaluated the keystone roles of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats on arthropods at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, USA. We evaluated the impacts of these rodents on ground-dwelling arthropod and grasshopper communities in areas where prairie dogs and kangaroo rats co-occurred compared to areas where each rodent species occurred alone. Our results demonstrate that prairie dogs and kangaroo rats have keystone-level impacts on these arthropod communities. Their burrow systems provided important habitats for multiple trophic and taxonomic groups of arthropods, and increased overall arthropod abundance and species richness on the landscape. Many arthropods also were attracted to the aboveground habitats around the mounds and across the landscapes where the rodents occurred. Detritivores, predators, ants, grasshoppers, and rare rodent burrow inhabitants showed the strongest responses to prairie dog and kangaroo rat activity. The impacts of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats were unique, and the habitats they created supported different assemblages of arthropods. Where both rodent species occurred together on the landscape, there was great habitat heterogeneity and increased arthropod diversity.
Pino Gate Prairie Dog Study: Mound-scale Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Plot Data from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (2000-2001)
Keystone species have large impacts on community and ecosystem properties, and create important ecological interactions with other species. Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) are considered keystone species of grassland ecosystems,and create a mosaic of unique habitats on the landscape. These habitats are known to attract a number of animal species, but little is known about how they affect arthropod communities. Our research evaluated the keystone roles of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats on arthropods at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, USA. We evaluated the impacts of these rodents on ground-dwelling arthropod and grasshopper communities in areas where prairie dogs and kangaroo rats co-occurred compared to areas where each rodent species occurred alone. Our results demonstrate that prairie dogs and kangaroo rats have keystone-level impacts on these arthropod communities. Their burrow systems provided important habitats for multiple trophic and taxonomic groups of arthropods, and increased overall arthropod abundance and species richness on the landscape. Many arthropods also were attracted to the aboveground habitats around the mounds and across the landscapes where the rodents occurred. Detritivores, predators, ants, grasshoppers, and rare rodent burrow inhabitants showed the strongest responses to prairie dog and kangaroo rat activity. The impacts of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats were unique, and the habitats they created supported different assemblages of arthropods. Where both rodent species occurred together on the landscape, there was greater habitat heterogeneity and increased arthropod diversity. there was great habitat heterogeneity and increased arthropod diversity.
Pino Gate Prairie Dog Study: Landscape-scale Grasshopper Plot Data from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (2000-2002)
Keystone species have large impacts on community and ecosystem properties, and create important ecological interactions with other species. Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) are considered keystone species of grassland ecosystems, and create a mosaic of unique habitats on the landscape. These habitats are known to attract a number of animal species, but little is known about how they affect arthropod communities. Our research evaluated the keystone roles of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats on arthropods at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, USA. We evaluated the impacts of these rodents on ground-dwelling arthropod and grasshopper communities in areas where prairie dogs and kangaroo rats co-occurred compared to areas where each rodent species occurred alone. Our results demonstrate that prairie dogs and kangaroo rats have keystone-level impacts on these arthropod communities. Their burrow systems provided important habitats for multiple trophic and taxonomic groups of arthropods, and increased overall arthropod abundance and species richness on the landscape. any arthropods also were attracted to the aboveground habitats around the mounds and across the landscapes where the rodents occurred. Detritivores, predators, ants, grasshoppers, and rare rodent burrow inhabitants showed the strongest responses to prairie dog and kangaroo rat activity. The impacts of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats were unique, and the habitats they created supported different assemblages of arthropods. Where both rodent species occurred together on the landscape, there was greater habitat heterogeneity and increased arthropod diversity.
Pino Gate Prairie Dog Study: Mound-scale Grasshopper Plot Data from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (2000-2001)
Keystone species have large impacts on community and ecosystem properties, and create important ecological interactions with other species. Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) are considered keystone species of grassland ecosystems, and create a mosaic of unique habitats on the landscape. These habitats are known to attract a number of animal species, but little is known about how they affect arthropod communities. Our research evaluated the keystone roles of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats on arthropods at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, USA. We evaluated the impacts of these rodents on ground-dwelling arthropod and grasshopper communities in areas where prairie dogs and kangaroo rats co-occurred compared to areas where each rodent species occurred alone. Our results demonstrate that prairie dogs and kangaroo rats have keystone-level impacts on these arthropod communities. Their burrow systems provided important habitats for multiple trophic and taxonomic groups of arthropods, and increased overall arthropod abundance and species richness on the landscape. Many arthropods also were attracted to the aboveground habitats around the mounds and across the landscapes where the rodents occurred. Detritivores, predators, ants, grasshoppers, and rare rodent burrow inhabitants showed the strongest responses to prairie dog and kangaroo rat activity. The impacts of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats were unique, and the habitats they created supported different assemblages of arthropods. Where both rodent species occurred together on the landscape, there was greater habitat heterogeneity and increased arthropod diversity.
Gunnison's Prairie Dog Relocation Project: Vegetation Standing Crop Data from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (2005-2011)
Grasslands are among the most imperiled ecosystems in the world where the loss of native species is a consequence of agriculture and desertification. In North America, 90% of the grassland has been converted to cropland where vast areas are now desertified. North America's most iconic grassland herbivores, bison and prairie dogs, are now extinct throughout most of their historic range. This study measures the standing crop of plant vegetation (perennial and annual combined) for the year on areas occupied and not occupied by Gunnison's prairie dogs on the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (NWR).
Gunnison's Prairie Dog Restoration Experiment (GPDREx): Small Mammal Mark-Recapture Population Assessment within Grasslands at the Sevilleta National Widlife Refuge, New Mexico (2013-2014)
Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) are burrowing rodents considered to be ecosystem engineers and keystone species of the central grasslands of North America. Yet, prairie dog populations have declined by an estimated 98% throughout their historic range. This dramatic decline has resulted in the widespread loss of their important ecological role throughout this grassland system. The 92,060 ha Sevilleta NWR in central New Mexico includes more than 54,000 ha of native grassland. Gunnison’s prairie dogs (C. gunnisoni) were reported to occupy ~15,000 ha of what is now the SNWR during the 1960’s, prior to their systematic eradication. In 2010, we collaborated with local agencies and conservation organizations to restore the functional role of prairie dogs to the grassland system. Gunnison’s prairie dogs were reintroduced to a site that was occupied by prairie dogs 40 years ago.  This work is part of a larger, long-term study where we are studying the ecological effects of prairie dogs as they re-colonize the grassland ecosystem. With this project, we would like to further investigate the impact that Gunnison’s prairie dogs have on the landscape. Gunnison’s prairie dog monitoring data has been collected from the beginning of the reintroduction project, but little information has been collected on how grassland species respond to the sudden presence of prairie dogs on the refuge. This project will help determine if the prairie dog reintroduction has had positive impacts on the grassland ecosystem. Prairie dogs benefit grasslands in many ways, but their role as ecosystem engineers directly impacts other species by creating new habitat that would not be present without prairie dogs. We have documented physical landscape changes, but we have not specifically documented benefits to other grassland species. This work will help determine if the reintroduced prairie dog populations on Sevilleta NWR are now acting as a keystone species in a grassland ecosystem by monitor
Gunnison's Prairie Dog Relocation Project: Population Dynamics within Grasslands at the Sevilleta National Widlife Refuge, New Mexico (2005-2014)
The Sevilleta Gunnison’s Prairie Dog (Cynomys gunnisoni) Restoration project examines keystone consumer (herbivore) effects on grassland in concert with ecological restoration of a “species of greatest conservation need in New Mexico” (NMGandF Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy, 2007). SevLTER partners directly with Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico Game and Fish, USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station and non-profit Prairie Dog Pals on this ambitious effort to re-establish Gunnison’s prairie dogs to blue grama dominated (Bouteloua gracilis) Great Plains grassland at the foothills of the Los Pinos Mountains on Sevilleta. While engaged in wildlife management aimed at translocation of approximately 3000 individual prairie dogs, ultimately establishing 5-6 colonies over a 500 ha area, SevLTER is focusing resources on monitoring population dynamics of reintroduced prairie dogs and their effects on vegetation production and diversity, soil disturbance and grasshopper community composition. In this experiment, prairie dogs act as the treatment on a grassland site where the species was extirpated 40 years ago. The long term nature of the project lies in the course of re-establishing prairie dogs combined with the ultimate research goal of describing the functional role of Gunnison’s prairie dogs in an arid grassland ecosystem: first we are challenged to develop and document an economical and efficient management strategy which maximizes reintroduction success and colony survival; second we are tasked with monitoring prairie dog dynamics and their effects on the grassland throughout re-establishment and into a future state, when presumably management intervention will have subsided and we characterize the ecosystem as ‘restored’ – both in the face of highly variable abiotic inputs such as precipitation and temperature and biotic impacts such as predation.
SGS-LTER Genetic Structure of Metapopulation of Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs on the Central Plains Experimental Range and Pawnee National Grassland in Nunn, Colorado, USA 1997-1998
This data package was produced by researchers working on the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) Project, administered at Colorado State University. Long-term datasets and background information (proposals, reports, photographs, etc.) on the SGS-LTER project are contained in a comprehensive project collection within the Digital Collections of Colorado (http://digitool.library.colostate.edu/R/?func=collections&collection_id=3429). The data table and associated metadata document, which is generated in Ecological Metadata Language, may be available through other repositories serving the ecological research community and represent components of the larger SGS-LTER project collection. Additional information and referenced materials can be found: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/83465. Thirteen colonies of black-tailed prairie dogs were studied within a 264-km2 area of the Central Plains Experimental Range and the Pawnee National Grasslands in Weld County, Colorado. Tissue Collection, DNA Extraction, and microsatellite genotype scoring was performed.
Data from: Grassland type and seasonal effects have a bigger influence on plant functional and taxonomical diversity than prairie dog disturbances in semi-arid grasslands
<p>Prairie dogs (Cynomys sp.) are considered keystone species and ecosystem engineers for their grazing and burrowing activities (summarized here as disturbances). As climate changes and its variability increases, the mechanisms underlying organisms' interactions with their habitat will likely shift. Understanding the mediating role of prairie dog disturbance on vegetation structure, and its interaction with environmental conditions through time, will increase knowledge on the risks and vulnerability of grasslands. Here, we compared how plant taxonomical diversity, functional diversity metrics and community-weighted trait means (CWM) respond to prairie dog C. mexicanus disturbance across grassland types and seasons (dry and wet) in a priority conservation semiarid grassland of Northeast Mexico. Our findings suggest that functional metrics and CWM analyses responded to interactions between prairie dog disturbance, grassland type and season, whilst species diversity and cover measures were less sensitive to the role of prairie dog disturbance. We found weak evidence that prairie dog disturbance has a negative effect on vegetation structure, except for minimal effects on C4 and graminoid cover, but which depended mainly on season. Grassland type and season explained most of the effects on plant functional and taxonomic diversity as well as CWM traits. Furthermore, we found that leaf area as well as forb and annual cover increased during the wet season, independent of prairie dog disturbance. Our results provide evidence that grassland type and season have a stronger effect than prairie dog disturbance on the vegetation of this short-grass, water restricted grassland ecosystem. We argue that focusing solely on disturbance and grazing effects is misleading, and attention is needed on the relationships between vegetation and environmental conditions which will be critical to understand semi-arid grassland dynamics under future climate change conditions in the region. </p>
Post-translocation dynamics of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus): A successful conservation and human-wildlife conflict mitigation tool
<p>Prairie dogs have declined by 98% throughout their range in the grasslands of North America. Translocations have been used as a conservation tool to reestablish colonies of this keystone species and to mitigate human-wildlife conflict. Understanding the behavioral responses of prairie dogs to translocation is of utmost importance to enhance the persistence of the species and for species that depend on them, including the critically endangered black-footed ferret. In 2017 and 2018, we translocated 658 black-tailed prairie dogs on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation in central South Dakota, USA, a black-footed ferret recovery site. Here, we describe and evaluate the effectiveness of translocating prairie dogs into augered burrows and soft released within presumed coteries to reestablish colonies in previously occupied habitat. We released prairie dogs implanted with passive integrated transponders (PIT tags) and conducted recapture events approximately 1-month and 1-year post-release. We hypothesized that these methods would result in a successful translocation and that prairie dogs released as coteries would remain close to where they were released because of their highly social structure. In support of these methods leading to a successful translocation, 69% of marked individuals were captured 1-month post-release, and 39% were captured 1-year post-release. Furthermore, considerable recruitment was observed with 495 unmarked juveniles captured during the 1-year post-release trapping event, and the reestablished colony had more than doubled in area by 2021. Contrary to our hypothesis, yet to our knowledge a novel finding, there was greater initial movement within the colony 1-month post-release than expected based on recapture locations compared to published average territory size; however, 1-year after release most recaptured individuals were captured within the expected territory size when compared to capture locations 1-month post-release. This research demonstrates that while translocating prairie dogs may be socially disruptive initially, it is an important conservation tool.</p>
Post-translocation dynamics of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus): A successful conservation and human-wildlife conflict mitigation tool
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Data from: Grassland type and seasonal effects have a bigger influence on plant functional and taxonomical diversity than prairie dog disturbances in semi-arid grasslands
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Data from: Genetic variation and structure in contrasting geographic distributions: widespread vs. restricted black-tailed prairie dogs (subgenus Cynomys)
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Potential landscapes for conservation of the black-tailed prairie dog ecosystem
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Pino Gate Prairie Dog Study at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico: Mound-Scale Lizard Data (2000-2002)
Keystone species have large impacts on community and ecosystem properties, and create important ecological interactions with other species. Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) are considered keystone species of grassland ecosystems, and create a mosaic of unique habitats on the landscape. These habitats are known to attract a number of animal species, but little is known about how they affect lizard communities. Our research evaluated the keystone roles of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats on lizards at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, USA. We evaluated the impacts of these rodents on lizard communities in areas where prairie dogs and kangaroo rats co-occurred compared to areas where each rodent species occurred alone. Our results demonstrate that prairie dogs and kangaroo rats have keystone-level impacts on these lizard communities. Their burrow systems provided important habitats for multiple lizard species, especially the lesser earless lizard (Holbrookia maculata). At the landscape-scale, the total number of lizards was two-times greater on the where both prairie dogs and banner-tailed kangaroo rats co-occurred than where only kangaroo rats occurred.
Gunnison's Prairie Dog Relocation Project: Vegetation Cover Data from the Sevilleta National Wildife Refuge, New Mexico (2005-2013)
Prairie dogs are keystone species that impact both animals and plants in grassland habitats. They are a food resource for secondary consumers such as badgers, foxes, and raptors. Also, the mounds that they construct are home to many arthropod and reptile species that otherwise might not survive in grasslands. Both Gunnison’s and black-tailed prairie dogs can increase the number of plant species in grasslands and landscape heterogeneity with their ecosystem engineering that creates disturbed patches on the landscape. Gunnison’s prairie dogs, which were native herbivores at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) before their populations disappeared, were reintroduced at the Sevilleta NWR in 1997, 2005, and 2008. In 1998, a Gunnison’s prairie dog colony naturally established along the northern border on the east side of the Refuge. The naturally occurring colony and the colony that was reintroduced in 1997 have since then severely declined or gone locally extinct. Still, with the removal of cattle from the Sevilleta in 1973, the reintroductions of Gunnison’s prairie dogs in 2005 and 2008 provides an interesting opportunity to study how a native keystone herbivore affects a grassland habitat without the pressures and competition from livestock.
SGS-LTER Graduate Student Research: Cattle use of prairie dog towns on the shortgrass steppe of Colorado
This data package was produced by researchers working on the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) Project, administered at Colorado State University. Long-term datasets and background information (proposals, reports, photographs, etc.) on the SGS-LTER project are contained in a comprehensive project collection within the Digital Collections of Colorado (http://digitool.library.colostate.edu/R/?func=collections&collection_id=3429). The data table and associated metadata document, which is generated in Ecological Metadata Language, may be available through other repositories serving the ecological research community and represent components of the larger SGS-LTER project collection. Additional information and referenced materials can be found: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/83512. We investigated the use of prairie dog towns by cattle (Bos taurus) on the shortgrass steppe of northeastern Colorado by conducting surveys of cattle and vegetation from June to August 1999. Cattle presence and behavior were recorded 3 times a week during driving surveys of 15 black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) towns. A subset of 3 pastures with prairie dog towns was intensively surveyed twice weekly wherein the habitat and activity of a randomly chosen focal animal was recorded every 6 minutes for 3.5 hours. Bite and step counts of other individuals were recorded for 5-minute intervals. Vegetation height and cover data were collected monthly on each of 6 habitats. Results from driving surveys and intensively surveyed pastures were similar; cattle neither significantly preferred nor avoided prairie dog towns. Bare ground cover on prairie dog towns did not significantly differ from most other habitats, but vegetation on prairie dog towns was significantly shorter on (mean = 6.7 cm) than that off (mean = 11.9 cm) prairie dog towns. Nevertheless, foraging observations indicated that there was no significant difference between cattle foraging rates on swales (70.9
SGS-LTER Graduate Student Research: Cattle use of prairie dog towns on the shortgrass steppe of Colorado
This data package was produced by researchers working on the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) Project, administered at Colorado State University. Long-term datasets and background information (proposals, reports, photographs, etc.) on the SGS-LTER project are contained in a comprehensive project collection within the Digital Collections of Colorado (http://digitool.library.colostate.edu/R/?func=collections&collection_id=3429). The data table and associated metadata document, which is generated in Ecological Metadata Language, may be available through other repositories serving the ecological research community and represent components of the larger SGS-LTER project collection. Additional information and referenced materials can be found: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/83512. We investigated the use of prairie dog towns by cattle (Bos taurus) on the shortgrass steppe of northeastern Colorado by conducting surveys of cattle and vegetation from June to August 1999. Cattle presence and behavior were recorded 3 times a week during driving surveys of 15 black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) towns. A subset of 3 pastures with prairie dog towns was intensively surveyed twice weekly wherein the habitat and activity of a randomly chosen focal animal was recorded every 6 minutes for 3.5 hours. Bite and step counts of other individuals were recorded for 5-minute intervals. Vegetation height and cover data were collected monthly on each of 6 habitats. Results from driving surveys and intensively surveyed pastures were similar; cattle neither significantly preferred nor avoided prairie dog towns. Bare ground cover on prairie dog towns did not significantly differ from most other habitats, but vegetation on prairie dog towns was significantly shorter on (mean = 6.7 cm) than that off (mean = 11.9 cm) prairie dog towns. Nevertheless, foraging observations indicated that there was no significant difference between cattle foraging rates on swales (70.9
Data From: Characterizing patterns of genomic variation in the threatened Utah prairie dog: implications for conservation and management
<p>Utah prairie dogs (<i>Cynomys parvidens</i>) are federally threatened due to eradication campaigns, habitat destruction, and outbreaks of plague. Today, Utah prairie dogs exist in small, isolated populations, making them less demographically stable and more susceptible to erosion of genetic variation by genetic drift. We characterized patterns of genetic structure at neutral and putatively adaptive loci in order to evaluate the relative effects of genetic drift and local adaptation on population divergence. We sampled individuals across the Utah prairie dog species range and generated 2,955 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using double digest restriction site associated DNA sequencing (ddRAD). Genetic diversity was lower in low elevation sites compared to high elevation sites. Population divergence was high among sites and followed an isolation-by-distance (IBD) model. Our results indicate that genetic drift plays a substantial role in the population divergence of the Utah prairie dog, and colonies would likely benefit from translocation of individuals between recovery units, which are characterized by distinct elevations, despite the detection of environmental associations with outlier loci. By understanding the processes that shape genetic structure, better informed decisions can be made with respect to the management of threatened species to ensure that adaptation is not stymied.</p>
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