Prairie dogs are keystone species of North American grasslands, supporting over 100 other species, yet they face lethal control programs and plague outbreaks that cause mass mortality.
Prairie dogs suffer from introduced sylvatic plague which causes rapid mass mortality in colonies. Individual deaths from plague involve systemic septicemia and hemorrhage. Poisoning programs using zinc phosphide cause painful deaths. Recreational shooting of prairie dogs, legal in many western states, results in individually painful deaths with varying skill levels among hunters. Translocation programs for black-footed ferret recovery require prairie dog population management. Plague vaccination programs using peanut butter-flavored vaccine-laced bait pellets show promise for protecting colonies without lethal control. Prairie dogs have complex warning call systems that convey information about predator size, shape, color, and speed, indicating sophisticated cognitive and social lives.