Prairie Dog at Herberstein Wildlife Park

Clever Subtenants

“Look over there, a meerkat!” is something you often hear when eager sentinels sit upright on the rim of the burrows, intensely on the lookout for enemies. However, this is a case of mistaken identity—prairie dogs are North American rodents, not African predators! They belong to the ground squirrel family and are therefore related to the European ground squirrel and the marmot.

These rodents are native to the American shortgrass prairies. At Herberstein Wildlife Park, however, they pay no heed to continental boundaries. Smart enough to know that ungulates won’t harm them, they have moved out of their original enclosure and are enjoying the amenities in the communal enclosures shared by Asian antelopes and deer, as well as mountain zebras and wildebeests.

Since crested porcupines prefer very short grass to maintain a better view, they benefit from their grass-eating roommates. As the days grow shorter, you can watch them busily preparing for winter.

Here, too, they help themselves generously to their landlords' property. With their mouths stuffed full of stolen hay or feathers dropped by ducks and geese, they set about padding their nests.

Black-tailed prairie dogs only rest during particularly harsh weather in winter; they do not go into a deep hibernation. They wake up regularly to eat and occasionally stick their heads out of their burrows.

Masters of Urban Planning

Given the large number of burrows in a colony, it is often referred to as a prairie dog town. It can have several thousand, if not millions, of inhabitants. Within the individual burrows, however, life is a closed community.

Only members of their own family—which consists of several females, one or two territorial males, and their offspring—are allowed entry. Young males leave the family at the age of 2, while the females are allowed to stay.

Did you know?

Ground squirrels got the first part of their name, “prairie dog,” because of their habitat, and the second part because of the warning calls they make when danger approaches.