Prairie Dogs

Although you'd think that my dozens of posts on our August roadtrip would have been comprehensive, leaving nothing out, that's not the case.

One of the things that I didn't show you earlier was the prairie dog colony at Devils Tower National Monument. I didn't post about it at the time because I thought that video would be a better way to show this off.

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If you're a video lover don't get too excited -- I haven't edited any of my footage from that trip yet, and who knows when I'll get around to that project -- no video in today's post.

So I decided to show the photos now. Unfortunately, most of the images of the animals look exactly like this one above: prairie dogs eating. A few noses poking out of the grass.

There are a lot of photos of this view too:

Although in the early 1900's there were unbelievably huge prairie dog "towns" in this part of the country -- one documented colony covered 25,000 square miles and contained an estimated 400 million prairie dogs -- ranching concerns caused the eradication of most wild populations. I'm pretty sure I read that the colony at Devils Tower is the largest remaining, covering 40 acres. (Please correct me if I'm wrong!) More info here.

All I know for sure is those little guys are cute and make funny little sounds, even when not "barking" in warning -- especially when there are hundreds of them!

Kumo was quite interested in them too, especially in the ones that were closest to the road -- some of the entrance holes were right at the edge of the pavement!

If you visit Devils Tower you'll drive right past this spot -- if you don't stop, you'll be missing out!


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