Prairie dogs are herbivorous burrowing ground squirrels native to the grasslands of North America. Within the genus are five species: black-tailed, white-tailed, Gunnison's, Utah, and Mexican prairie dogs. In Mexico, prairie dogs are found primarily in the northern states, which lie at the southern end of the Great Plains: northeastern Sonora, north and northeastern Chihuahua, northern Coahuila, northern Nuevo León, and northern Tamaulipas. In the United States, they range primarily to the west of the Mississippi River, though they have also been introduced in a few eastern locales. They are also found in the Canadian Prairies. Despite the name, they are not actually canines; prairie dogs, along with the marmots, chipmunks, and several other basal genera belong to the ground squirrels, part of the larger squirrel family (Sciuridae).
The Great Plains, sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. It is the southern and main part of the Interior Plains, which also include the tallgrass prairie between the Great Lakes and Appalachian Plateau, and the Taiga Plains and Boreal Plains ecozones in Northern Canada. The term Western Plains is used to describe the ecoregion of the Great Plains, or alternatively the western portion of the Great Plains.
Emmons County is a county in the U.S. state of North Dakota. As of the 2010 census, the population was 3,301. Its county seat has been Linton since 1899.
Eden Prairie is a city 12 miles (19 km) southwest of downtown Minneapolis in Hennepin County and the 16th-largest city in the State of Minnesota, United States. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 64,198. The city is adjacent to the north bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from its confluence with the Mississippi River.
The black-footed ferret, also known as the American polecat or prairie dog hunter, is a species of mustelid native to central North America.
The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a rectangular area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east. It is adjacent to the Oklahoma Panhandle. The Handbook of Texas defines the southern border of Swisher County as the southern boundary of the Texas Panhandle region.
The Missouri Coteau, or Missouri Plateau, is a large plateau that stretches along the eastern side of the valley of the Missouri River in central North Dakota and north-central South Dakota in the United States. In the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta this physiographic region is classified as the Uplands Missouri Coteau, which is a part of the Great Plains Province or Alberta Plateau Region, which extends across the southwest corner of the province of Saskatchewan as well as the southeast corner of the province of Alberta. Historically, in Canada the area was known as the Palliser's Triangle and regarded as an extension of the Great American Desert and unsuitable for agriculture and thus designated by Canadian geographer and explorer John Palliser. The terrain of the Missouri Coteau features low hummocky, undulating, rolling hills, potholes, and grasslands. Apart from being a geographical area, the Missouri Coteau also has a cultural connection to the people of the area, the Métis people of South Dakota, along with other Indigenous groups. The history of this plateau is large, and the Missouri Coteau has a significance to these people.
Elm Springs is an unincorporated community in Meade County, South Dakota, United States. The locality was settled in 1893. Although not tracked by the Census Bureau, Elm Springs had been assigned the ZIP code of 57736. It now uses the zipcode from Wasta, which is 57791.
Prairie City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Perkins County, South Dakota, United States. One of many rural settlements in Perkins County, the town was founded in 1946 by former residents of Strool. The population of the CDP was 25 at the 2020 census. The town has been assigned the ZIP code of 57649.
The Loess Hills are a formation of wind-deposited loess soil in the westernmost parts of Iowa and Missouri, and the easternmost parts of Nebraska and Kansas, along the Missouri River.
The black-tailed prairie dog is a rodent of the family Sciuridae found in the Great Plains of North America from about the United States-Canada border to the United States-Mexico border. Unlike some other prairie dogs, these animals do not truly hibernate. The black-tailed prairie dog can be seen above ground in midwinter. A black-tailed prairie dog town in Texas was reported to cover 25,000 sq mi (64,000 km2) and included 400,000,000 individuals. Prior to habitat destruction, the species may have been the most abundant prairie dog in central North America. It was one of two prairie dogs described by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the journals and diaries of their expedition.
Dakota Dunes is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP), master-planned residential and commercial development covering about 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) in Union County in the extreme southeast corner of the U.S. state of South Dakota. The population was 4,020 at the 2020 census.
Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River is a sandy-braided stream about 120 mi (193 km) long, formed at the confluence of Palo Duro Creek and Tierra Blanca Creek, about 1.8 mi (2.9 km) northeast of Canyon in Randall County, Texas, and flowing east-southeastward to the Red River about 1 mi (2 km) east of the 100th meridian, 8 mi (13 km) south-southwest of Hollis, Oklahoma.
Silver City is an unincorporated community in Pennington County, South Dakota, United States, outside Rapid City. It lies at the head of Pactola Lake on Rapid Creek, and is about 5 miles west of U.S. Route 385 via a paved county road. It is not tracked by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The shortgrass prairie is an ecosystem located in the Great Plains of North America. The two most dominant grasses in the shortgrass prairie are blue grama and buffalograss, the two less dominant grasses in the prairie are greasegrass and sideoats grama. The prairie was formerly maintained by grazing pressure of American bison, which is the keystone species. Due to its semiarid climate, the shortgrass prairie receives on average less precipitation than that of the tall and mixed grass prairies to the east.
The Northern short grasslands includes parts of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and the American Great Plains states of Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska. One of 867 terrestrial ecoregions defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) further breaks this ecoregion into the Northwestern Glaciated Plains and Northwestern Great Plains.
Dewey is an unincorporated community near the southwest corner of Custer County, South Dakota, United States, less than one mile from the Wyoming border in a prairie region of the Black Hills. There are approximately five or six homes in town. Dewey has a volunteer fire department in the Edgemont city district.
Strool is a ghost town in Perkins County, in the U.S. state of South Dakota. Founded by homesteader Benjamin Strool in 1908, Strool was noted for its thriving culture and baseball team, Jewish community, and practice of renting land rather than selling it.
Greycliff Prairie Dog Town State Park is a Montana state park located on the eastern edge of the community of Greycliff. The 98-acre (40 ha) park protects and preserves the black-tailed prairie dog.
