Black-tailed prairie dogs are ecosystem engineers facing threats from plague and habitat loss, with colony welfare tied to the broader health of North American grassland ecosystems.
Prairie dogs dying from sylvatic plague experience respiratory failure, hemorrhage, and rapid organ failure. Oral vaccine baiting programs prevent mass suffering and are cost-effective welfare and conservation interventions. Individual prairie dogs poisoned as agricultural pests die from respiratory or neurological effects of toxicants. The ecosystem loss from colony destruction also affects the welfare of numerous dependent species.