Relation of Black-tailed Prairie Dogs and Control Programs to Vegetation, Livestock, and Wildlife

Black-tailed prairie dogs, Cynomys ludovicianus (Ord), have been considered to be pests on shortgrass and mixedgrass prairies of central North America since the late 1800's (Merriam 1902). Because prairie dogs compete for forage with livestock, massive prairie dog control programs were initiated and are still a common practice (Schenbeck 1982). Prairie dog control also has been justified to reduce reservoirs of contagious diseases. Throughout these control programs, little attention has been given to economic benefits from increased forage, comparison of effectiveness of rodenticides used for prairie dog control, secondary impacts on nontarget animals, livestock-prairie dog forage relationships, and wildlife utilizing prairie dog colonies. This chapter presents an overview of these aspects as related to black-tailed prairie dogs on western rangelands.