_Specimens examined_ (5).--Sec. 25, R. 3 E, T. 22 N, 2; 1-1/2 mi. W
Buffalo, 1; 1/2 mi. W Camp Crook, 3200 ft., 2.
The extensive flatlands of short grasses on relatively deep soils
provide ideal habitat for the black-tailed prairie dog in Harding
County. Visher (1914:89) mentioned extensive colonies along "flats" of
streams and reported one "town" west of the Little Missouri River that
covered several sections and another "on the table of the West Short
Pine Hills." Recently, emphasis on control of numbers of prairie dogs in
the area has reduced many formerly extensive colonies to small, disjunct
units. According to Robert Kriege (personal communication, 1968), a
"town" of approximately 3000 acres, about five miles east of the Little
Missouri River (in R. 2 E, T. 21 N), is the largest remaining in the
county. Thirteen other colonies then known to him ranged in approximate
size from 25 to 300 acres.
White-colored prairie dogs apparently are not uncommon in some areas of
the county and local residents reported to us a number of instances of
sighting such individuals. One "town" located 7-1/2 mi. N and 12 mi. W
Ladner, in the northwestern corner of the county, contained at least six
families of white individuals, congregated together at the edge of the
colony, in the spring of 1968. White prairie dogs also were noted by one
of our field parties in 1963 in a "town" formerly located 7-1/2 mi. W
Buffalo.
~Tamiasciurus hudsonicus dakotensis~ (J. A. Allen, 1894)