[colorado tanker]

Why would anyone want them back??

[Red Badger]

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

I used to run a water company, and one of our customers had a P-dog as a pet. It was pretty cute!

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

They’re a big part of the ecosystem in South Dakota, too.

Cattle step in their holes, break their legs and get put down by the farmer.

[blueunicorn6]

They built a fenced-in habitat for the Black Footed Ferrets in Montana.

Right in the middle of a prairie dog colony.

The ferrets eat prairie dogs.

The trouble was, they fenced in a coyote with them.

Turns out, coyotes prefer eating ferrets over prairies dogs.

Ate every last ferret.

[MrEdd]

Rodents

[Sacajaweau]

they clip grass and recycle and make "holes for habitat"....

We call it farming.

[familyop]

Prairie dogs on the Rockies don’t have towns. It’s one gigantic prairie dog city covering the whole Range, and they carry the Plague. There aren’t many fleas at high elevations, but the disease can be contracted in other ways (by way of pets, livestock watering equipment,...). That along with deer mice carrying Hantavirus makes for an interesting environment.

[gnarledmaw]

This is a great idea! Yknow, I was just saying to a friend, “Yknow what we need? A good plague. Not quite biblical but a real challenge for society. Something like bubonic plague.”

[DakotaGator]

Known as a “keystone species,” prairie dogs have a vast effect on the entire ecosystem around them because they clip the vegetation allowing native grasses to grow, recycle nutrients, and their digging activity provides habitats for many other animals, License said.

Interesting take on prairie rats. The other view is that they eat the roots, destroy the range, and leave holes for all manner of creatures to step into and break their legs.

Fun targets though for a lazy afternoon.

[willk]

My late cat Abigail used to stand up just like a prairie dog and look around. It was really cute.

[ETL]

[Don Corleone]

They WILL regret this act of PC stupidity

[arthurus]

Prairie dog towns are a wonderful habitat for Yersina Pestis.

[ETL]

[PAR35]

Are they promoting the plague, or do they just want injured livestock?

[Rio]

It should help boost the coyote population.

[Dusty Road]

We’ve got two towns on the ranch, ones just under a half section and the big is almost a section and a half. We’ve run cows in both pastures for at least 65 years that I know of and never lost a cow due to being crippled. Infact it saved a bunch of cows 6 years ago when we had the big fires on the ranch and lost 16 square miles of pasture. The cows gathered in the towns to get a way from the fire.

[minnesota_bound]

I know

[blueplum]

oh lovely - let’s spread plague, monkeypox, and rabbit-fever bearing gophers to more areas. What could go wrong?