Prairie Dog

[Sonu Sharma]

Today i was sitting with my cup of coffee and enjoying the rain, when i saw this article about Praire dog in the newspaper. i thought , as their name, that they must be of dog family, but NO, they aren't, and to my surprise, they are burrowing rodents, native to the grasslands of North America.

They are named for their habitat and warning call , which sounds similar to dog's bark. As seen in the picture i feel they look like Squirrel, somewhat, 

and rabbit too.you know, what i was amazed to read about them, it was written that they pray like us to the Sun, with eyes closed and hands (paws) in the form of Namaste standing straight...., it was too cute to see them.Several people who have observed them over a period of time say that half an hour before sunrise and sunset,they stand facing the Sun, with their little paws in the prayer position for sometime, like 30minutes. They are said to be Highly social, they live in large colonies or "towns"- collection of prairie dog families that can span hundreds of acres. They live in families and have males, females, children , uncle, aunts , niece, nephews ..........., isn't it great!!. wow!! too exciting for me to hear like this perhaps read like this.they love to kiss each other and they communicate within the families.

                                                        

Their family town may consists of 15-26 family groups and the sub-groups too, called "wards". these are separated by a physical barrier. Family groups are made up of one adult breeding male, two to three adult females and one to two male offspring and one to two female offspring. Females remain in their natal groups for life and are thus the source of stability in the groups.Males leave their natal groups when they mature to find another family group to defend and breed in. Some family groups contain more breeding females than one male can control, so have more than one breeding adult male in them. Among these multiple-male groups, some may contain males that have friendly relationships, but the majority contain males that have largely antagonistic relationships.Two to three groups of females may be controlled by one male. However, among these female groups, there are no friendly relations. how so similar to humans, isn't it? i really find it amazing.