January 13, 2018

Prairie Dog Town

This prairie dog town is next to the campground at Caprock Canyons State Park. These little guys are fun to watch as they seem to be running around not paying any attention to cars or people on the road. But just take a step too close and suddenly, they whistle an alarm and then they all run toward their tunnels.


This town is on both sides of the road. What looks like lumps of clay or rocks in this picture is really lots of prairie dogs. The mounds around some of the holes are a little easier to see. Some holes are small, but others are quite large. The hole under the trash dumpster in the top right corner was so big that it looked like the corner of the dumpster could fall in.



Above is a cropped section of the same photo. See the prairie dogs now?



After a few minutes, they all come back out again as if nothing happened.



This little guy (or gal) was in an area by himself.  When he saw me watching him, he stood up and looked around like he just realized he was all alone.



He looked like he was about to jump in his hole, but then decided to stop and watch me.



I was ten to twelve feet away and keeping as still as I could, and he sat up again and just watched me.



After a few minutes, he turned his head to look around a little, but he never took his eyes off of me. When I walked off, he ducked into his hole. Searching for his friends who deserted him no doubt.



As I walked toward a road intersection to join Hubby, a startled prairie dog ran across the road.



Here is her glamour shot as she stopped beside a pot hole in the road.



She paused for a moment and then jumped into the pot hole. We waited a few minutes, but she never came out, so we walked over to the pot hole to see if she was crouched in the bottom.



It wasn't a pot hole at all! The prairie dogs had dug through the pavement and she was long gone!

8 comments:

  1. They are kinda cute, wonder how destructive they are. I noticed this was out in the open, do they ever get too close to homes?

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  2. I love to watch prairie dogs! You were in such a beautiful area too!

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  3. I think they are encouraged not to settle near homes or towns. They can tear up a field with their digging and livestock can break a leg stepping in their holes. People could step in those holes too if they aren't careful. When we walked around the canyon rim, we took a shortcut between bends in the trail and came across another prairie dog town. Those prairie dogs were not used to seeing people and hid before we got near enough to see them. We didn't see anything except their holes and fresh digging.

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  4. Looks like this one had a great escape plan. Got away from you before you even know he/she was gone. Cute.

    Have a fabulous day and weekend. ♥

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  5. Sadly some farmers pay a high price for the hides to get rid of them because they do so much damage to the crops.
    They are so cute but do so much damage, I hope they never make it to Minnesota.

    Blessings
    Catherine

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  6. Great photos, they are cute little critters.

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  7. Fun photos. I guess the little creatures have plans for getting away no matter where they are.

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