What is this thing??

[Jeffshadows]

Is this some kind of prairie dog? It was seen along the Meadow Trail in the Catalinas...

[Al_HikesAZ]

Yes
http://www.desertusa.com/dec96/du_pdogs.html
"Prairie Dog Geography – Range
Throughout most of the western United States from Canada to Mexico -- Montana, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming -- including higher elevations of the Mojave, Great Basin and Chihuahuan deserts.

Related Species
Prairie Dogs are the most social members of the Squirrel Family and are closely related to ground squirrels, chipmunks and marmots. There are 5 species of Prairie Dogs (genus Cynomys):"

And I can't resist:
Carl Spackler: [preparing to dynamite the gopher tunnel] In the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, 'Au revoir, gopher'.

[dysfunction]

In response to Al_HikesAZ:
So what you're saying is that it's defiantly a member of the Varmint Cong.

[Al_HikesAZ]

Yes. But I don't know the hunting status. You'll have to ask Carl. The black-tailed prairie dog was extirpated from Southern AZ back in the '60's but has been reintroduced over the last decade

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/34088
No 'endangered' label for black-tailed prairie dog
By Mitch Tobin ARIZONA DAILY STAR August 13, 2004

Black-tailed prairie dog

(Cynomys ludovicianus)

● STATUS: This member of the squirrel family is one of five species of U.S. prairie dogs, two of which are already listed under the Endangered Species Act.

● RANGE: Still found in 10 states, but nearly all were eliminated from Southeast Arizona by the 1930s, largely due to poisoning. The last colony, near Douglas, died out by 1960.

● BEHAVIOR: Called "dogs" because of their barks, they are highly social and live in "towns" covering up to 1,000 acres.

● SOURCES: Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.


The black-tailed prairie dog isn't at risk of extinction and won't be listed under the Endangered Species Act, federal officials said Thursday.

But the move may not hurt plans to reintroduce the cute and charismatic rodent to Southeast Arizona.

While the creature is a popular attraction at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, many ranchers have viewed it as a varmint that takes forage from cattle. That led to government-sanctioned poisoning campaigns that eliminated prairie dogs from Arizona last century.

Environmental groups decried Thursday's ruling, saying it would remove the incentive states had to conserve prairie dogs, which are still found from North Dakota to New Mexico.

"This politically motivated decision will condemn the prairie dog to a bleak future," said Lauren McCain of Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians.

But the Arizona Game and Fish Department said the ruling won't scuttle its plans for reintroduction southeast of Tucson on private, state and federal land. It may even make things easier since the prairie dogs won't have the regulatory baggage that can accompany the threatened or endangered label, said Bill Van Pelt, Game and Fish's nongame-mammals program manager.

"There's not the stigma of the Endangered Species Act . . . looming over potential cooperators," he said, noting that some landowners and ranchers leasing public land for grazing are interested in the program.

Game and Fish began its so-called 12-step process for reintroduction in 1999. It held public hearings last year and is now on step six, calling on the University of Arizona to evaluate release sites. Moving wild prairie dogs to Arizona is years away and will have to be approved by the agency director, Van Pelt said.

Environmentalists, arguing that prairie dogs are gone from 99 percent of their historic range, petitioned the government to list the species in 1998. Two years later, the Clinton administration said listing was "warranted but precluded" by other priorities, landing the species on a candidate list that critics deride as regulatory purgatory for imperiled wildlife.

Previously, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the impacts of sylvatic plague and intentional poisoning justified listing. But on Thursday the Bush administration said a new look at scientific data shows prairie dogs are resilient and that dramatic declines at some sites due to disease or chemicals don't mean the species is at risk throughout its range.

Fish and Wildlife also said improved surveys now suggest there are 1.8 million acres in the nation occupied by the prairie dogs. That's up from the 676,000-acre estimate in 2000 and the 364,000-acre estimate in 1961, but still a fraction of the 100 million acres occupied in historic times. Since each acre of habitat has about 10 animals, Fish and Wildlife believes the current population is around 18 million.

Federal officials and conservation groups agree prairie dogs are important to the ecology of grasslands. Their burrows are used by other creatures. Their digging turns the soil. And their colonies provide valuable hunting grounds for hawks and black-footed ferrets, which rely on prairie dogs for 90 percent of their diet and are considered by some to be the most endangered U.S. mammal.

"Historically, people thought of these as pests, but they're not," said Vinjay Jain of the National Wildlife Federation, which filed the 1998 petition. "They serve an extremely important role in the ecosystem."


Black-tailed prairie dog

(Cynomys ludovicianus)

● STATUS: This member of the squirrel family is one of five species of U.S. prairie dogs, two of which are already listed under the Endangered Species Act.

● RANGE: Still found in 10 states, but nearly all were eliminated from Southeast Arizona by the 1930s, largely due to poisoning. The last colony, near Douglas, died out by 1960.

● BEHAVIOR: Called "dogs" because of their barks, they are highly social and live in "towns" covering up to 1,000 acres.

● SOURCES: Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

[azbackpackr]

Ok, I get confused about this. There are these round-tailed ground squirrels I've seen (I had to look them up in a book) and I thought they were prairie dogs because they lived in colonies, sat up on their mounds, etc. and I thought they were prairie dogs, but they weren't.

Not sure what yours are, mind you. Just that mine weren't.

[Jeffshadows]

"...Come to Carl, gopher..."

[Al_HikesAZ]

. . . There are these round-tailed ground squirrels I've seen . . . I thought they were prairie dogs, but they weren't.
Not sure what yours are, mind you. Just that mine weren't.

The round-tailed ground squirrel (Spermophilus tereticaudus) that I'm familiar with is recognized by its short tan fur, small ears, large eyes and mid-sized tail. The mammal in the photo appears darker and larger. High in the Catalinas it could be C. gunnisoni (spelling?) a different species of prairie dog from the one being reintroduced. I would need to see the tail. Gophers, moles and voles aren't likely to be this social or visible.

[big_load]

Gophers, moles and voles aren't likely to be this social or visible.

I agree. I can't distinguish it based on physical characteristics, but not many other such animals will let you get that good a look.

[PrestonSands]

I'd like one of those for a pet.

Carl... Didn't he once caddy for the dalai lama? Gunga la gunga!

[crispycreme]

I don't think it's a prairie dog. It looks to me like a Botta's Pocket Gopher ( http://fireflyforest.net/firefly/2007/1 ... ket-gopher - note in particular where they're found in Arizona ). My field guide doesn't show any dark morph prairie dogs, and your rodents are definitely dark colored. Gophers are much more variant in their color than prairie dogs are. Also, the habitat would be unlikely for a prairie dog since this photo was taken up in the Catalinas.

[BobP]

Carl... Didn't he once caddy for the dalai lama? Gunga la gunga!

Yea..Carl told me "the Lama's a big hitter".

[Jeffshadows]

Yes!! It looked almost exactly like the fourth pic of the pocket gopher on that page. Thanks!

[Jeffshadows]

...Correct me if I'm wrong, Sandy, but - if I kill all the golfers they're going to lock me up and throw away the key...

[dysfunction]

Not Golfers! GOPHERS, ya stupid git.