Lone Prairie Dogs.

OKRattler

Well-known member
This is kind of a random/stupid question but I saw a prairie dog today and he was heading into some CRP grass.The strange thing is that the closest dog town is a mile and a half away from there.I've seen that quite a few time but never really understood what in the world those crazy things were up to.Has anyone else ever seen that before?
Last year I was going to the post office and saw one in a friend of mines yard right in the middle of town.I saw it two days later but he was flatter than a pancake on the highway.Its just kinda funny to me that they get up one morning and think "Im movin today." /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
As I said this is kind of a stupid topic but its just somethin I've noticed and thought I'd bring it up. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
 
Yep, I've seen it. I have seen it in SD a few times. we used to shoot on a ranch that was about 6000 acres. The only place there were dog towns was in one corner of the ranch. But a few times on the way out to shoot we would see them running down the field road about a 1/2 mile away. I first thought there were some towns closer we could not see, but we never found them.
 

Goofy prairie dogs./ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif

I saw one last summer right in the middle of town by the hospital. Where he came from, what he was doing or where he thought he was going is beyond me.

Like you said, I think one day Paw pd grabs Maw pd and says "come on, were moving to greener pastures."

You ever wonder how a dog town can be completely poisoned out or completly wiped out by the plague. Be totally void of any pd life. Not another prairie dog town within 40 miles, but possibly in 2 years there are pd's starting to inhabit the town again?

Or how a colony gets started out in the middle of nowhere, when the next nearest town is many, many miles away?

I've thought about it alot. I've never come up with an answer I'm satisfied with. I do figure they must make some long journeys at times. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif Amazing little critters if you stop and think about it. Fun to shoot too. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Maybe he was just going on vacation. I like to get out of town a few times a year too! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
From what I know the lone prairie dogs are scouts looking for new ground to start new towns. My great uncle never had any pd towns on his land yet you would see a lone one every once in a while. He said to do whatever you can to kill them cause once they find ground they like there will be holes everywhere.
 
NEIOWAARCHER-I've seen that happen before too.There was a field not too far from where me and a buddy of mine would shoot them.One day we were out there just lookin around and spotted one prairie dog out there diggin so I popped it with my .17HMR but more have moved out there since then.Well there were some but they got plowed up and I guess when the farmers decided that was'nt going to make them move they poisoned them.There are more right next to the land that they own so Im pretty sure more are just gonna move out there though. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif

doggin coyotes-You brought up somethin that I could never figure out.A dog town a mile from my house got poisoned and they were gone for at least 4 years but now their all over the place again.There is'nt a prairie dog town within 15 miles of that place.Those things are the travelinist little critters I ever saw.How they knew to move there is somethin else I wonder about. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
I just realized that I think about things too much.And its usually things that arent that important. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

grizzly204-Yeah I can understand that. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Thumper333-That actually crossed my mind and I actually think thats what they might be doing but I cant say for sure.Cause the lone prairie dogs I see usually dont make it back to the dog town they came from.Like what I was saying before when I shot that PD out in that field all by his lonesome but later more were in the same spot.You'd think that if the PD they sent out lookin for new land to live on didnt come back they would figure that land is'nt worth livin on. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Fact: Prairie dogs are canabalistic when times get tough fo them.

This time of year there is nothing for them to eat here and they get goofy and brave out looking for something to eat. They become road pancakes as well as hawk and eagle fodder. Since we had such a mild winter here they were out most of the winter. They have consumed all their close food stores.

My experience has show me that if you see 1 prairie dog, you missed seeing about 20. So that lone little guy is not really alone.
 
And they conduct airmobile operations with help from the red-tailed hawks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif
 
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The same thing must go for muskrats....when I was a kid in the spring they would disperse and you would see them on main street of town and come in the overhead door of gas stations ....just walk right in. Lots got run over and killed by dogs and preds but eventually they find a new "muskrat area" and set up camp and hope for a partner to happen by. They would be in my dads barn with the cows....seemed real disoriented but maybe it was muskrat love.... SM /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
They are great when you only have single shot rifles!

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
 
ColoradoOsprey-I've always heard that prairie dogs are canabalistic but never knew if it was true or not.Thanks for the info. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif

4eyes-Thats a possibilty. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

spiderman-I've seen a couple of muskrats but we dont have any in my part of Oklahoma so I dont know much about them.We were fishin one day and a couple were swimmin around the dock and I thought they were pretty interesting to watch.That was almost 15 years ago so I cant beleive I remember that to be honest with ya.

claimbuster-I agree with you.I carry around my single shot .17HMR alot so it comes in pretty handy when I run across one of them diggin away.

BMoe-Probably so. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

trapper2-I can beleive it.I would like to know how far those PD's traveled that are a mile from my house.Its a long ways from any dog towns and a couple of years ago I figured they were gone for good.Their back in full force now though.It could have been a record cause the closest one I can think of is about 15 miles. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
 


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