News Release

Petrified Forest National Park has gone to the Dogs…Prairie Dogs

A Gunnison’s Prairie Dog stands up in its burrow.

NPS/Grace Harris

News Release Date: July 18, 2024

Contact: Sarah Hervé, 928-241-4174

PETRIFIED FOREST, Ariz. Petrified Forest National Park has been working with Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site to translocate Gunnison’s Prairie Dogs (Cynomys gunnisoni) from a location where they are in conflict with humans to another location where they can thrive and support their ecosystem. A large number of prairie dogs have come into conflict with the staff housing area of Hubbell Trading Post. With the support of a National Park Foundation grant, Petrified Forest National Park biologists have stepped in to capture the dogs and bring them to established colonies within the national park. 

Park biologists are careful to trap and translocate Gunnison’s Prairie Dogs in family groups, or "coteries," to ensure the highest success rate of survival. The translocations include an acclimation period where the dogs are kept and fed in cages that are on top of existing but unoccupied prairie dog burrows before being released within the colony. The colonies are monitored over time to determine survival rates and population size. 

Despite the name, Gunnison's prairie dogs are a type of squirrel that live in communal burrows throughout the American Southwest. All five species of prairie dogs are considered keystone species and help to maintain healthy grassland ecosystems by churning soils, distributing seeds of native plants, and providing habitat for snakes and burrowing owls. Prairie dogs are also an important food source for predators such as coyotes, bobcats, badgers, hawks, and the highly endangered black-footed ferret. 

“Petrified Forest is working to bolster a declining prairie dog population through these types of translocation activities” explains Todd Cornwell, one of the park’s biologists leading the prairie dog projects. “Petrified Forest has plenty of space for the dogs to create large colonies that will not interfere with humans, and in the future, we may have a large enough population to support the reintroduction of the black-footed ferret, one of North America's rarest animals." 

This multiyear effort has also included the park partnering with the Habitat Harmony organization to perform translocations from the Flagstaff, Arizona area where prairie dog habitats have been in conflict with construction sites. These and the Hubbell Trading Post translocations has the park looking forward to seeing the benefits of thriving prairie dog colonies.