كلب البراري

كلب البراري حيوان قارض يعيش في جحور في المناطق العشبية الواقعة غربي أمريكا الشمالية، وينتمي إلى فصيلة السنجاب، وقد سُميّ بهذا الاسم لتشابه صوته بصوت عواء الكلب، عندما يطلق نداء تحذيريا.

كلب البراري Temporal range: Late Pliocene to Recent
Black-tailed Prairie Dog
التصنيف العلمي
مملكة:	الحيوان
Phylum:	الحبليات
Class:	الثدييات
Order:	Rodentia
Suborder:	Sciuromorpha
Family:	Sciuridae
Tribe:	Marmotini
Genus:	Cynomys Rafinesque, 1817
Species
Cynomys gunnisoni Cynomys leucurus Cynomys ludovicianus Cynomys mexicanus Cynomys parvidens

كلب البراري (Cynomys) هى فصيل من نوع القوارض قوارض (ليست في الحقيقة كلابا) مواطن لسهول المروج من أمريكا الشمالية. توجد في الحقيقة خمسة فصائل لكلاب البراري  : كلب البراري -أسود الذيل, كلب البراري -أبيض الذيل, الفصيل جانيسون, الفصيل يوتاه, و أخيرا كلاب البرارى المكسيكية. يوجد نوع من السناجب الأرضية. في المتوسط, المكسيكية. يوجد نوع من السناجب الأرضية. في المتوسط ، ممتلئ الجسم هذه القوارض ستنمو إلى ما بين 30–40 سم في الطول, تشمل الذيل القصير والوزن مابين 0.5–1.5 كج. وهى توجد في الولايات المتحدة, كندا, و المكسيك. في المكسيك, كلاب البراري موجودة أساسا في ولايات الشمال التي هي الطرف الجنوبي لل موجودة أساسا في ولايات الشمال التي هي الطرف الجنوبي للمسطحات العظمى سونورا, الشمال والشمال الشرقي شيهواهوا , northern Coahuila, northern Nuevo León, and northern Tamaulipas; in the U.S., they range primarily west of the Mississippi River, though they have also been introduced in a few eastern locales. They will eat all sorts of vegetables and fruits.

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 علم الحياة والعادات

العادات. تعيش كلاب البراري في جحور، لا تخرج منها إلا خلال النهار لتناول غذائها، وتقتات النباتات الخضراء بصورة رئيسية خصوصًا الأعشاب، وفي بعض الأحيان، تتناول الجنادب والحشرات الأخرى.

تُعد كلاب البراري حيوانات اجتماعية، إذ تعيش مجموعات كبيرة منها في مناطق تسمى المستعمرات أو البلدات التي قد تضم أكثر من 500 حيوان. تضم كل مستعمرة من مستعمرات كلاب البراري السوداء الذيل، مجموعات أسرية تعرف بالمجموعات. وتتألف المجموعة النموذجية من ذكر مكتمل النمو واحد، وثلاث إلى أربع إناث مكتملة النمو، وعدة جراء.

تبقى المجموعة ضمن منطقة محددة تدعى إقليمًا. وقد يوجد في الإقليم ما بين 50 و 100 جحر، يبلغ عمق بعضها خمسة أمتار. يكون في معظم الجحور مدخلان للتهوية، والمساعدة في الهرب من الأعداء. تشمل الحيوانات التي تفترس كلاب البراري الغُرَيْر والقط البري والقيوط والعقاب والصقر الحر وابن مقرض والصقر، وتنذر كلاب البراري بعضها بعضًا بالخطر بوساطة إطلاق أصوات عواء عالية أو صوت سقسقة مرتفع.

Kissing prairie dogs

Fighting prairie dogs

The highly social prairie dogs live in large colonies or "towns" – collections of prairie dog families that can span hundreds of acres. Families usually consist of 1 male and 2 to 4 females living in a strict social hierarchy. Prairie dog pups reach sexual maturity at about 3 years of age, and after their third winter the dominant male in a given family will drive them away, forcing them to establish their own families on the edges of the colony. The dominant male will defend the family's borders against rival prairie dogs, and disputes are resolved by fighting. Prairie dogs are also aggressive against predators such as badgers and snakes. Prairie dogs are social animals, however, and often make social visits with each other, and greet each other with a sort of kiss.

Prairie dog tunnel systems help channel rainwater into the water table to prevent runoff and erosion, and can also serve to change the composition of the soil in a region by reversing soil compaction that can be a result of cattle grazing. The tunnels usually have several chambers. Tunnels can descend vertically as much as 5 metres (16 ft), and can extend laterally as much as 30 metres (98 ft). Prairie dogs line their burrows with grass to insulate them, and the earth excavated from the burrow is piled up in mounds around the burrow's entrance. The prairie dogs use these carefully maintained mounds as observation posts.

The prairie dog is well adapted to predators. Using its dichromatic color vision, it can detect predators from a far distance and then alert other prairie dogs to the danger with a special, high-pitched call. Con Slobodchikoff and others assert that prairie dogs use a sophisticated system of vocal communication to describe specific predators. Prairie dogs also trim the vegetation around their colonies, perhaps to remove any cover for predators. Their burrows generally contain several routes of escape.

The prairie dog is chiefly herbivorous, though it eats some insects. It feeds primarily on grasses and, in the fall, broadleaf forbs. Prairie dogs have 1-6 pups (babies) yearly, which are born blind and furless and need about 30 days of close nurturing from their mother.

 Conservation status

A Black-tailed Prairie Dog forages above ground for grasses and leaves

Ecologists consider this rodent to be a keystone species. They are an important prey species, being the primary diet in prairie species such as the Black-footed Ferret, the Swift Fox, the Golden Eagle, the badger, and the Ferruginous Hawk. Other species, such as the Mountain Plover and the Burrowing Owl, also rely on prairie dog burrows for nesting areas. Even grazing species such as bison, pronghorn, and mule deer have shown a proclivity for grazing on the same land used by prairie dogs. It is believed that they prefer the vegetative conditions after prairie dogs have foraged through the area.

Nevertheless, prairie dogs are often identified as pests and exterminated from agricultural properties because they are capable of damaging crops, as they clear the immediate area around their burrows of most vegetation.

A prairie dog and his hole

As a result, prairie dog habitat has been impacted by direct removal by ranchers and farmers as well as the more obvious encroachment of urban development which has greatly reduced their populations. The removal of prairie dogs "causes undesirable spread of brush" the costs of which to livestock range may outweigh the benefits of removal. The largest remaining community comprises Black-tailed Prairie Dogs. In spite of human encroachment, prairie dogs have adapted, continuing to dig burrows in open areas of western cities.

One common concern which led to the widespread extermination of prairie dog colonies was that their digging activities could injure horses by fracturing their limbs. However, according to writer Fred Durso, Jr. of E Magazine, "after years of asking ranchers this question, we have found not one example." Another concern is their susceptibility to bubonic plague.

 In captivity

Prairie dogs are gaining popularity as zoo animals

Until 2003, primarily black-tailed prairie dogs were collected from the wild for the exotic pet trade in Canada, the United States, Japan, and Europe. They were removed from their underground burrows each spring, as young pups, with a large vacuum device. They are difficult to breed in captivity, but it has been done on several occasions. Removing them from the wild was a far more common method of supplying the market demand.

They can be difficult pets to care for, requiring regular attention and a very specific diet of grasses and hay. Each year they go into a period called rut that can last for several months, in which their personalities can drastically change, often becoming defensive or even aggressive. Despite their needs, prairie dogs are very social animals and come to almost seem like they treat humans as members of their colony, answering barks and chirps, and even coming when called by name.

In mid-2003, due to cross-contamination at a Madison, Wisconsin-area pet swap from an unquarantined Gambian pouched rat imported from Ghana, several prairie dogs in captivity acquired monkeypox, and subsequently a few humans were also infected. This led the CDC to institute an outright ban on the sale, trade, and transport of prairie dogs within the United States. The disease was never introduced to any wild populations. The European Union also banned importation of prairie dogs in response. While largely seen by exotic pet owners and vendors as unfair, the monkeypox scare was not the only zoonosis incident associated with prairie dogs.

Prairie dogs are also very susceptible to bubonic plague, and many wild colonies have been wiped out by it. Also, in 2002 a large group of prairie dogs in captivity in Texas were found to have contracted tularemia. The prairie dog ban is frequently cited by the CDC as a successful response to the threat of zoonosis.^{[بحاجة لمصدر]}

Prairie dogs that were in captivity at the time of the ban in 2003 were allowed to be kept under a grandfather clause, but were not to be bought, traded, or sold and transport was only permitted to and from a veterinarian under quarantined procedures.

On September 8, 2008, the FDA & CDC rescinded the ban making it once again legal to capture, sell, and transport prairie dogs effective immediately. Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 174 Although the federal ban has been lifted, several States still have their own ban on prairie dogs in place.

 كلاب البراري و الإنسان

A prairie dog prairie-dogging in the opening of its burrow

يكره الكثير من أصحاب المزارع الكبيرة كلاب البراري لأنهم يخشون أن تدوس مواشيهم على جحورها وتصاب قوائمها بالأذى. إلا أن الخيول والأبقار نادرًا ما تطأ الجحور. فضلا عن ذلك، يعتقد أصحاب المزارع أن كلاب البراري تتناول الأعشاب والنباتات الأخرى التي قد تتناولها مواشيهم. غير أن الدراسات تشير إلى أن كلاب البراري لا تقطن إلا المناطق التي رعتها المواشي رعيا كاملا. وثمة حاجة إلى إجراء مزيد من البحوث لتفهم العلاقة بين كلاب البراري والمواشي.

In companies that use large numbers of cubicles in a common space, employees sometimes use the term prairie dogging to refer to the action of several people simultaneously looking over the walls of their cubicles in response to a noise or other distraction. This action is thought to resemble the startled response of a group of prairie dogs.

A "surprised" prairie dog appeared in the internet video "Dramatic Chipmunk", which became a popular internet phenomenon.

The College of Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico uses the Prairie Dog as its athletic mascot.

Prairiemon, a digimon that looks like a prairie dog appears in Island of Lost Digimon.

They appear in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull during the scenes in the desert.

They are often referred to in the Canadian television sitcom Corner Gas.

On Total Drama Action, Izzy was revealed to have been living underground with a family of prairie dogs.

In a recent Jack in the Box commercial, a surprised gopher confronts a "mini cattle." Those who are not familiar with gophers may mistake it for a prairie dog.

 Classification and first identification

The Black-tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) was first described by Lewis and Clark in 1804 during the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Lewis described it in more detail in 1806, calling it the "barking squirrel."

• ORDER RODENTIA
• Suborder Sciuromorpha
  • FAMILY SCIURIDAE (Squirrels, chipmunks, marmots, and prairie dogs)
    • Subfamily Xerinae
      • Genus Cynomys
        • Gunnison's Prairie Dog, Cynomys gunnisoni
        • White-tailed Prairie Dog, Cynomys leucurus
        • Black-tailed Prairie Dog, Cynomys ludovicianus
        • Mexican Prairie Dog, Cynomys mexicanus
        • Utah Prairie Dog, Cynomys parvidens
      • About 14 other genera in subfamily

 Additional images

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  Common prairie dog

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  Prairie dog blends into its surroundings.

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  Prairie dog

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  Black-tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicianus)

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  Prairie dog in captivity

 وصلات خارجية

• Desert USA: Prairie Dogs
• Prairie dog
• Greycliff Prairie Dog Town State Park [1] [2]
• Dramatic Prairie Dog videos
• Prairie Dog Management, Kansas State University
• (Italian) Italian association of Prairie dogs