Abstract - Nonlethal Control of Prairie Dog Colony Expansion with Visual Barriers

Franklin, William L. and Garrett, Monte G. 1989. Nonlethal Control of Prairie Dog Colony Expansion with Visual Barriers. Wildlife Society Bulletin 17. pp. 426-430.

Abstract

Containment and control of populations of black-tailed (Cynomys ludovicianus) has long been a problem for managers of public and private lands. Lethal control methods of shooting and poisoning are not always consistent with management policies or local ordinances. Alternative nonlethal approaches have been needed, but were not available until recently when deferred cattle grazing (Snell and Hlavachick 1980, Uresk et al. 1982) and a temporary chemosterilant were successful (Garrett and Franklin 1983).

Prairie dogs are highly social, living in year-round family groups, or coteries (King 1955), whose mosiac of juxtaposed territories forms a colony. As semi-fossorial, open-habitat rodents, their permanent burrow systems are essential refuge for escape from predators and weather. Prairie dogs are dependent upon a visually unobstructed environment that allows visual contact with coterie members, territorial trespassers from adjacent coteries, and potential ground and aerial predators (Hoogland 1979). Nonforage plants that interfere with an unobstructed view are purposefully cut down at the base and left uneaten (Koford 15), and intensive grazing by prairie dogs often results in distinct vegetative zones within and surrounding a colony (King 1955, Garrett et al. 1982). Most surface-area expansion of a colony occurs in the 3 months following emergence of juveniles in May (Garrett 1982). With knowledge of these behavior characteristics, we investigated a new method of nonlethal control, using artificially constructed barriers to reduce colony expansion and site use.