Prairie Dogs

A comprehensive overview of the behavioral ecology of a highly social group of North American mammals

Best known for their large colonies, complex burrows, and frequent alarm calls, prairie dogs are diurnal, herbivorous rodents endemic to the grasslands of western North America. Prairie Dogs synthesizes forty-five consecutive years of John Hoogland’s pioneering field research on the ecology and social behavior of these remarkable animals, including many far-reaching discoveries published here for the first time.

Hoogland investigates all four species of prairie dogs that inhabit the western United States, offering invaluable insights about cooperation and competition among social animals living under natural conditions. He examines topics ranging from alarm calls, mating, predation, and vigilance to conservation, dispersal, population dynamics, and potential avenues for future research. Hoogland presents a wealth of new findings, describing how prairie dogs give alarm calls not only for offspring but also for more distant kin such as nieces, nephews, and first cousins. He documents how females reap substantial benefits from copulating with more than one male; how they avoid incest with offspring, parents, and siblings but regularly copulate with more distant kin; how nonparental infanticide is a major cause of juvenile mortality and varies directly with colony density; and how females of one species improve reproductive success by killing nearby ground squirrels.

Rich in personal stories and comparisons with more than five hundred other species ranging from amoebas to humans, this beautifully illustrated book is essential reading for behavioral ecologists and conservation biologists as well as mammalogists and curious naturalists. Hoogland’s magnum opus offers a master class in how to do careful long-term research.