White-Tailed Prairie Dog Skull

Description

White-Tailed Prairie Dog Skull Replica measures 2.7 inches. White-Tailed Prairie Dog Skull is museum quality polyurethane resin cast. Made in USA. Our precise skull can be used as a teaching tool, museum skull exhibit, home décor skull, or office décor skull.

The white-tailed prairie dog or 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.

The white-tailed prairie dog is tan-brown in color, with large eyes and a dark patch on their cheeks above and below each eye.

White-tailed prairie dogs display Interspecific competition with the Wyoming ground squirrel. When the squirrel enters the territory of the prairie dog, the white-tailed prairie dog chases the squirrel.

Rarely does the prairie dog capture and kill the squirrel, but when it does, it leaves the squirrel for avian predators, as the prairie dog is an herbivore. Female white-tailed prairie dogs who killed squirrels had increased litter sizes, but the higher her body count, the lower her chances of surviving each subsequent attack.

White-tailed prairie dog populations have decreased dramatically, and the remaining population occupies only around 8 percent of their original range. It is threatened by human persecution (shooting and poisoning), and a disease called Sylvatic Plague that can infect all prairie dogs.

This animal lives in small communities that are vulnerable to being wiped out by all of these issues. This species appears in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, with a status of least concern, last assessed in 1996.

Petitions have been made to protect the white-tailed prairie dog, but they have been denied by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service due to insufficient scientific data describing current population trends.

White-Tailed Prairie Dog Facts:

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae
Genus: Cynomys
Species: C. leucurus
Binomial name: Cynomys leucurus
Conservation status: Least Concern

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