Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Rodentia > Sciuridae > Cynomys > Cynomys leucurus

Cynomys leucurus (white-tailed prairie dog)

Wikipedia Abstract

The white-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys leucurus) is found in western Wyoming and western Colorado with small areas in eastern Utah and southern Montana. The largest populations are in Wyoming where they are known colloquially as "chiselers". This prairie dog species lives at an elevation between 5,000 and 10,000 feet, generally a higher elevation than other prairie dog species. Its predators include black-footed ferrets, badgers, and golden eagles.
View Wikipedia Record: Cynomys leucurus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
1
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
12
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 3.75
EDGE Score: 1.56
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  2.535 lbs (1.15 kg)
Diet [2]  Herbivore
Diet - Plants [2]  100 %
Forages - Ground [2]  100 %
Female Maturity [3]  1 year 6 months
Gestation [4]  30 days
Hibernates [5]  Yes
Litter Size [4]  6
Litters / Year [4]  1
Maximum Longevity [3]  6 years
Snout to Vent Length [3]  13 inches (32 cm)

Ecoregions

Name Countries Ecozone Biome Species Report Climate Land
Use
Colorado Plateau shrublands United States Nearctic Deserts and Xeric Shrublands
Colorado Rockies forests United States Nearctic Temperate Coniferous Forests
South Central Rockies forests United States Nearctic Temperate Coniferous Forests
Wasatch and Uinta montane forests United States Nearctic Temperate Coniferous Forests
Wyoming Basin shrub steppe United States Nearctic Deserts and Xeric Shrublands

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Arches National Park II 76539 Utah, United States
Dinosaur National Monument III 203307 Colorado, Utah, United States
Yucca House National Monument V 35 Colorado, United States

Predators

Aquila chrysaetos (Golden Eagle)[6]
Buteo jamaicensis (Red-tailed Hawk)[6]
Buteo regalis (Ferruginous Hawk)[6]
Falco mexicanus (Prairie Falcon)[6]
Mustela nigripes (Black-footed Ferret)[7]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1White-Tailed Prairie Dog Ecology in Wyoming, George E. Menkens Jr., Brian J. Miller, Stanley H. Anderson, Wildlife Damage Management, Internet Center for Great Plains Wildlife Damage Control Workshop Proceedings, pp. 34-38 (1987)
♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 3Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 4Cynomys leucurus, Tim W. Clark, Robert S. Hoffman, and Charles F. Nadler, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 7, pp. 1-4 (1971)
♦ 5Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 6FOOD HABITS AND NEST CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDING RAPTORS IN SOUTHWESTERN WYOMING, Patricia A. MacLaren, Stanley H. Anderson, and Douglas E. Runde, Great Basin Naturalist Vol. 48, No. 4 pp. 548-553 (1988)
♦ 7Rehabilitation of a species: The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes), Miller, B.; Biggins, D.; Hanebury, L.; Conway, C.; Wemmer, C., Ninth Annual Proceedings of the National Wildlife Rehabilitation Association, pages 183–192
♦ 8International Flea Database
♦ 9Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0