"Prairie Dog Town" Top 5 Page for this destination Devils Tower Things to Do Tip by toonsarah

After you enter the park surrounding Devil’s Tower look out on your left for several pull-outs. Park and look carefully at the grassy area next to the road. You’ll see lots of prairie dogs – popping in and out of their burrows, nibbling at the grass and other vegetation, and pausing from time to time to check out the tourists and make sure there’s no danger nearby. I really enjoyed watching their behaviour and their interactions with each other.

If you want to find out more about prairie dogs you can buy an interesting little leaflet from a box in the parking area for only a few cents. It describes their burrows, communication systems, what they eat and how they organise themselves and raise their young. For instance, I knew that prairie dogs warn of approaching danger by emitting a series of "barks," but not that they have specific barks for specific dangers, e.g. for a hawk they use a higher pitched and shorter bark.

It's very important that you don't feed the prairie dogs. Human food is hard for them dogs to digest and often contains additives that can make them sick. Also, prairie dogs are wild animals and can inflict a painful bite. They may also be host to fleas that can transmit bubonic plague to humans.

Directions: About a mile beyond the entrance gate, on the left