Tale of Tails

Prairie Dogs Get New Home
by: Kelly Bass

In the summer of 2002 WildCare received a baby prairie dog, then shortly after 3 others came in as ex-pets. Followed by another three from another wildlife rehabiltator who sent them to us because we have proper prairie dog enclosures where they have space to dig into the earth and more importantly they cannot dig out. The last prairie dog that we received came from the OKC-ZOO, which was part of their educational program. Before we knew it, prairie dogs were coming out of our ears. After these guys were successfully rehabilitated, we needed to find homes and that was the hard part.

Prairie dogs have had a bad wrap in the past and even now. At the turn of the twentieth century landowners with cattle viewed prairie dogs as nuisances and their territorial range significantly declined from millions of acres to 98% of their former habitat (according to the March 1998 issue of The Smithsonian Magazine). Presently, prairie dogs are linked with monkey pox, yet another reason to keep wild animals wild.

As the first newsletter of this year was making its way to our many supporters around the state and nation which included an article for these prairie dogs looking for a home, a man by the name of T. H. Milbey gave us a call requesting them. He wasn't asking for one but as many as we had. "We wanted a piece of land that has a variety of plants and animals, a place for people to view wildlife. Prairie dogs are interesting and represent a particular fauna in Oklahoma," said T. H. Milbey. After searching for a release site for so long we were really excited that these prairie dogs were going to have a place to call home and were also given the opportunity to stay together. The icing on the cake was that the release site is only a few miles from WildCare, so we can check on them frequently.

Now all we had to do was catch them and isolate them into separate cages for transportation and release, which is easier said then done. Late in May is the time of year when prairie dogs are raising their pups so it was a concern not to separate mothers and babies. We at WildCare do not breed any of our animals, but sometimes they don't listen to us. Since prairie dog babies are safely snuggled deep in their burrows, we decided that we would check the sex of each and look for lactating females. None were found, so I guess they listened to us after all.

Mr. Milbey's property never had a community of this type before; so, we decided to do a soft release, where animals are let go in steps. A total of seven prairie dogs were released. The first step was to safely secure a wire cage with a prairie dog in it to the ground at the release site for 48 hours, so the prairie dogs could get accustomed to their new surroundings. The second step was to open the door and face the opening towards the ground so the only way out is to dig out. The last and final step was to completely remove the cages once their mounds had been successfully dug. All throughout this process we continued to feed them eventually weaning them to be self-sufficient.

We started step one on June 3rd and on June 5th we started the second step. Three days after step two, I went back to check on their progress, and as I was pulling up to their location, I saw a prairie dog standing up looking at me from a distance. It wasn't until I got closer that I noticed that there was a fresh mound being dug. I could even see the earth being thrown out of the hole. Once I was standing in front of the entrance, I noticed two prairie dogs constructing their new home. All of the others were still in their cages but had begun to dig their burrow under their safe place, their cage. The first two weeks of June were wet ones and a lot of rain came through the state, which was a concern for the newly released prairie dogs.

During the second week, I noticed two more new mounds that were not as deep as the first one, but were definitely getting there. Out of all six cages, only one was found to be occupied as the rest were empty. It seems that four prairie dogs that were all housed together at WildCare, are still sharing one burrow. These were the friendliest of the bunch, and I was not all that surprised given their communal living space. Two other prairie dogs have their own living quarters, which is more typical. There was one who wasn't ready to leave its cage. I also noticed that none of the prairie dogs were coming up to investigate while I was there. They were more concerned for their safety. This is a good thing because it means that our hard work at WildCare has paid off at trying to keep them wild. As most of you know it is very hard to keep from socializing with any kind of wild animal, especially babies, yet we at WildCare pride ourselves at keeping wild animals wild and not as pets.

On Father's Day of this year, Jeremy, a WildCare volunteer and I went to take a peek at the prairie dogs progress. As we walked closer to the town we could hear one prairie dog sound the alarm and seconds after that all the others followed. Mr. Milbey removed three of the five vacated cages. Both of the remaining cages were occupied. One mound had a tunnel to a nearby cage, which the prairie dogs seemed to use as a safe place to look out for predators. The other cage had a single prairie dog in it and for some reason he/she decided to dig a shallow burrow under the cage. June 19th, all of the cages had been removed and for the first time the prairie dogs had to rely on the security from their burrows for protection from predators. It's amazing how, with proper rehabilitation, human social wildlife can revert back to their wild ways.

We continued to supplemental feed with rodent block through the end of June and in case of flooding, a couple of above ground shelters had been permanently secured to the ground. The last few times I visited the prairie dogs they were more interested in keeping a watchful eye on me as I examined their newly formed town. One even chased me out of their town; I took that as a thank you for our service.