Praire Dog Hunting Why do you shoot them?
- Thread starter markT
- Start date
I come from a farming & ranching background. While we did not have prairie dogs on our property, we had an abundance of ground squirrels. While they are primarily grass eaters, they are all rodents and are omnivorous and will eat bugs, grass and each other. When I began shooting pasture rats (they are rodents, not dogs) I was welcomed with open arms as they destroy a huge amount of grazing land that is crucial for the rancher to raise his herd.
Nice job of taking what I said out of context. You must be a Dimocrat.
I was clearly talking about what I have seen, in response to a claim that it happens all the time, in plain sight.
That was absolute BS. If it ever happens, it is extremely rare. And I'm talking prairie dogs, not some other rodent.
Adam in WI
Practically lives here
Hey bud, I was just pointing out an apparent discrepancy in your remarks that you might clarify for us. But thanks for the insult anyway, never pulled the lever for any D in my life.
bobm
Silver $$ Contributor
WARNING..... vintage graphic photo ahead. Do not scroll past this point if ya got no stomach.
My memory of this varmint is that it was a rocket blastoff shot touched off with a .22-250. He apexed about five feet and plugged his own hole on landing. Good times.
My memory of this varmint is that it was a rocket blastoff shot touched off with a .22-250. He apexed about five feet and plugged his own hole on landing. Good times.
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Another 32-gr V-Max satisfied customer 
Anyone who believes a Prairie Dog is trying to help a dead or wounded one lacks experience. Prairie Dogs are rodents they will consume anything. They eat rattle snakes and horn toads, grass hoppers etc. "Tommie" has it right. Here in Wyoming the P-dogs are very common.
TheOtherZilla
Pull my finger
I shoot em cuz it's fun. And here in Wyoming they are a problem. Not only do they eat up grasses etc, they dig holes. The rancher lady I shoot for hates em. Says her horses and cattle are always steppin in the holes..
Apparently there have been some other folks notice that PD's can be cannabalistic.
Here is a link to the article about PD and cannabalistic behavior - https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/1/cannibals-prairie-dogs-spiders-animals/#close
Prairie Dog
They’re the cutest infanticidal cannibalistic serial murderers you ever did see.Not all prairie dogs merit such dastardly designations, but we know some do, thanks to the tenacious research of John Hoogland, behavioral ecologist at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
After some major detective work discovered cannibalism among black tailed prairie dogs.“We noticed that almost all the females were mating, but very few were weaning babies,” said Hoogland, who began researching the rodents in 1974.
The team also noticed females going into the burrows of their closest female relatives, and “when they come up, they frequently had some blood on their faces.”
Mothers in those burrows stopped showing any signs of maternal behavior. Eventually, after much effort, “we found decapitated babies that had mostly been cannibalized down there,” Hoogland said. “Now we had the smoking gun.”
Another species, the Utah prairie dog, also eats its young but the behavior is rare or non-existent in other species.
“My guiding hypothesis,” he said, “is that competition is so extreme that sometimes natural selection favors prairie dogs to kill the offspring of close relatives because doing that raises the chances that their own babies make it.
“In that sense,” Hoogland says, “it really is a dog-eat-dog world.”
Here is a link to the article about PD and cannabalistic behavior - https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/1/cannibals-prairie-dogs-spiders-animals/#close
Prairie Dog
They’re the cutest infanticidal cannibalistic serial murderers you ever did see.Not all prairie dogs merit such dastardly designations, but we know some do, thanks to the tenacious research of John Hoogland, behavioral ecologist at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
After some major detective work discovered cannibalism among black tailed prairie dogs.“We noticed that almost all the females were mating, but very few were weaning babies,” said Hoogland, who began researching the rodents in 1974.
The team also noticed females going into the burrows of their closest female relatives, and “when they come up, they frequently had some blood on their faces.”
Mothers in those burrows stopped showing any signs of maternal behavior. Eventually, after much effort, “we found decapitated babies that had mostly been cannibalized down there,” Hoogland said. “Now we had the smoking gun.”
Another species, the Utah prairie dog, also eats its young but the behavior is rare or non-existent in other species.
“My guiding hypothesis,” he said, “is that competition is so extreme that sometimes natural selection favors prairie dogs to kill the offspring of close relatives because doing that raises the chances that their own babies make it.
“In that sense,” Hoogland says, “it really is a dog-eat-dog world.”
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40 years of observing P-dogs and the only cannibalism Hoogland has ever observed is lactating females eating the young of other females in very hard years. Not a single case of one adult P-dog consuming another.
Even with the smaller species ground squirrels the white-tailed p-dogs kill, Hoogland says they kill them and then walk away -- they do NOT eat them.
They are herbivores, and the posters here saying they've seen p-dogs eat dead ones are dope-smoking, basement-dwelling hallucinators!
Funny how with all the videos of p-dogs out there getting shot not a single one shows survivors munching on the dead ones.
Even with the smaller species ground squirrels the white-tailed p-dogs kill, Hoogland says they kill them and then walk away -- they do NOT eat them.
They are herbivores, and the posters here saying they've seen p-dogs eat dead ones are dope-smoking, basement-dwelling hallucinators!
Funny how with all the videos of p-dogs out there getting shot not a single one shows survivors munching on the dead ones.
Brians356
Gold $$ Contributor
Do you (or would you, if around them) hunt coyotes?
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Downeast
Gold $$ Contributor
We have plenty of coyotes and no, I don't hunt them either. I'm not saying that you shouldn't hunt prairie dogs, coyotes, or whatever other species is legal to hunt. I'm just saying that I don't.
40 years of observing P-dogs and the only cannibalism Hoogland has ever observed is lactating females eating the young of other females in very hard years. Not a single case of one adult P-dog consuming another.
Even with the smaller species ground squirrels the white-tailed p-dogs kill, Hoogland says they kill them and then walk away -- they do NOT eat them.
They are herbivores, and the posters here saying they've seen p-dogs eat dead ones are dope-smoking, basement-dwelling hallucinators!
Funny how with all the videos of p-dogs out there getting shot not a single one shows survivors munching on the dead ones.
First of all come to grips with yourself and try to keep the conversation civil rather than degrading to name-calling and attempting to belittle those you disagree with, it does not put you in a good light.
Hoogland does not say at what point in his study that he observed cannabalism but it was obviously a by-product of his study since he was not specifically looking for it. Notice that is only stating a hypothesis as to the reason he gives, that does not mean that his hypothesis is the definitive or even correct answer.
(Hypothesis - a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.)
Cannabalism in any species is a risky survival strategy, the chances of being injured or killed is very high. However Hoogland's study does not address his study from the same approach as those of us who shoot PD's do and as a consequence his observation does not take into account that a dead PD or remnants of shot PD's would be a rich source of protein for other PD's. I will go so far as to say it is likely more common in the scenario that we see it in - dead and dying PD's after being shot pose little risk to the attacker at that point and can provide another food source. Notice that we have seen it being done on dead and dying PD's not as actual attacks on healthy uninjured animals, at least in my case. As far as the cannabalism that I and other posters have observed it is likely that practice is more common in that scenario.
Having observed PD's eating on other dead and drying PD's I have no doubt that they do it. It would seem that you may not have seen or noticed it while others have. Do you think that in order to prove you wrong that a group of posters on the forum came together to post just to argue with you? What would be the purpose of that?
Among ground squirrels I have observed very high rates of cannabalism, much more so that among PD's. Why the difference? I cannot say with great certainity but I suspect it is because the ground squirrels cram a lot of frenetic activity into a very short span of time (here they come up around the 1st of April and by mid-July they are back underground) so the cannabalization provides them with extra protein to sustain that level of activity.
In closing - Because you have not seen it does not mean that it does not occur, others have seen it and know that it does occur.
drover
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Brians356
Gold $$ Contributor
I have shot many California ground squirrels (Otospermophilus beecheyi) which emerged into the open to eat the remains of a brother killed only a few minutes earlier. Having what amounts to "bait" positioned with unobstructed field of fire is a bonanza.
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bobm
Silver $$ Contributor
Brians356
Gold $$ Contributor
Had to look that one up. Well done.
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