Black-tailed prairie dogs

Cynomys ludovicianus

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Over the past century the grasslands of northern Mexico have been taken over by shrubby mesquite and turned to desert. Ecologist Gerardo Ceballos is on a mission to turn them back. Can he restore an entire prairie ecosystem? Ceballos hopes he can, with the help of an unlikely ally. Ari Daniel Shapiro reports from Chihuahua.

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Image Credit: Arthur Chapman, Flickr: EOL Images. CC BY-NC-SA

The One Species at a Time podcast series is supported by the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.

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Meet the Scientists

Black-tailed Prairie Dogs Podcast: Meet the Scientist

Meet ecologist Gerardo Ceballos:

Ecologist Gerardo Ceballos with a jaguar

Where do you work?

The Instituto de Ecologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.

What do you study?

I study the ecology and conservation of wildlife.

What are three titles you would give yourself?

Ecologist, Conservationist, Writer.

What do you like to do when you are not working?

I like to read, jog, paint, play music, photography, travel.

What do you like most about science?

I do love to find new things. To be able to get insights on topics and issues that nobody has done it before. I love to study wildlife in the field. And I do enjoy writing scientific papers an popular books.

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Extras

Black-tailed Prairie Dog Podcast: Extras

Images

The grassland ecosystem of the Janos region of Chihuahua is home to the last free-roaming herd of bison in Mexico. View a gallery of bison and other prairie mammals from Ari’s trip to the prairie of Chihuahua, Mexico. Images courtesy of Gerardo Ceballos and Rurik List

Facts

The largest colony of black-tailed prairie dogs ever recorded stretched for 65,000 square miles beneath a Texas prairie. Scientists estimate the prairie dog town was home to 400 million prairie dogs.

Prairie dogs are ecosystem engineers, reshaping and modifying the landscape they inhabit. They keep the vegetation cropped short, which may aid the colony in spotting predators. They aerate the soil with their tunnel excavations, attracting harvester ants. The colony provides ideal nesting habitat for certain birds, including the burrowing owl and the rare mountain plover.

Participate

You may not live near prairie dogs, but it’s likely you live near one of their relatives. Tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots, and flying squirrels share the family Scurridae with prairie dogs. Snap a photo of your local member of the large and diverse squirrel family and share it with EOL via our Flickr Group Pool.