Prairie Dogs are not really dogs at all - they're related to squirrels. They earned their name because their chirping alert calls sound similar to dogs barking.

Prairie Dogs communicate with a complicated system of warning calls and displays to mark their territories and warn about predators.

Unfortunately, numbers of Prairie Dogs have fallen drastically in recent years. Because they cause damage to farmers' crops by eating almost all of the vegetation around their colonies, they are often regarded as pests and are destroyed.

Where do Prairie Dogs live?
North America to Northern Mexico

Prairie dogs live in dry grassland, and make their homes in complex underground tunnel systems which can descend as deep as 5 metres and extend laterally as far as 30 metres. The burrows contain separate "rooms" for sleeping, rearing young, storing food and eliminating waste.

What they eat
Mainly grasses, although about 2 per cent of their diet is insects.

Average lifespan
Up to 5 years