Black-tailed Prairie Dogs, Cynomys ludovicianus, live in a small colony inside Caprock Canyons State Park near Quitaque, Texas.
They share this park with people and buffalo. You can see in this image, they like to eat grass.

In this image, you can see the black tip of the tail for which this species is named.

Prairie dogs live in burrows. At the surface they will build conical or crater-like mounds that rise above the surrounding plain. This helps keep water out of their burrow. It also provides an elevated site for watching for predators that may be looking for an easy meal of unsuspecting prairie dog.

When they are far from their home burrow and the warning bark sounds, you can see them scamper for safety.

Prairie dogs eat some kinds of plants besides grass. They also trim and remove plants that get too tall and obstruct their vision or give hiding places for predators. This image shows a prairie dog engaged in pruning.

Sometimes, the ground is wet and soft and the prairie dogs will dig for plant roots to eat. This little fellow has been busy in the muddy ground looking for treats.

This image was taken in February and shows that late winter in the Texas panhandle provides dry grass for hungry prairie dogs. Poor fare, indeed.

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In the first image you see a young specimen of Ulmus crassifolia, also known as the cedar elm tree. Visible on this tree are places where the bark has been stripped away down to the white wood underneath. In some parts of Texas, you can see activity like this on small branches and twigs due to the activity of rats. Obviously, something larger has been busy here.

In this image, another young tree has been nearly stripped of bark along its trunk.

Closer inspection of the trunk shows places where large teeth have been at work and have scored the trunk. Porcupines range into western Texas where they feed on various kinds of herbaceous plants during the year. They will also eat the inner bark of some types of trees. From the looks of the trees in these photos, they enjoy young cedar elm bark considerably.

In this last image, you can see where the porcupine was able to feed close to the ground and avoid having to climb for his dinner. Porcupines are largely nocturnal, but they can be seen about in the daytime. I have yet to encounter a live one of these large rodents and I am looking forward to seeing one peeling tree bark one of these days.

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Here we see an urban squirrel enjoying her pecan while sitting on the top bar of a chain link fence. These little creatures make use of whatever is available for moving about in their environment. The species pictured here is Sciurus niger, the Fox squirrel.

Most people think squirrels just eat nuts. Here we see another urban squirrel enjoying some grass from the lawn. Some folks have trouble with these little fellas raiding their bird feeders, too.

This squirrel is in the top of a pecan tree. If the tree had all its leaves, the color of her underbelly would make her difficult to see. From above, her fur makes it hard for a predatory bird to tell her from the branch she is on.

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I used to live in the Fort Worth area and our home had two mature live oaks in the front yard and 4 mature pecan trees in the back. Consequently, we had lots of fox squirrels, Sciurus niger, on the property and in the neighborhood.

Fox squirrels are active, interesting creatures and always fun to photograph. The first image shows one of our neighborhood residents on my front porch on a hot September afternoon.

The second image shows her spread-eagle on the terrazzo surface trying to soak up some cool. This location is shaded most of the day by the huge live oak trees.

The third image shows my furry friend up in the live oak tree after she noticed me with my camera. Fox squirrels are playful animals and generally very confident about their abilities to avoid predators. Unless they have been made fearful of humans, you can usually count on getting pretty close to squirrels living in the neighborhood. It makes it fairly simple to make pretty photos.

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The Black-Tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) is the common prairie dog seen on great plains of North America. The two in the picture are engaged in grooming. These two are also undergoing seasonal molting of their fur as evidenced by the line across the midsection of the animal on the right (above). Periodic shedding of fur occurs in many mammals, as pet owners know. During molt, the Prairie Dog’s fur looks patchy or abnormal as it is shed and replaced. Shed lines like those seen here are typical of the rodents. When complete, the animal has a new set of “clothes”.

Aside from the humorous stretch, notice the shed-line on this animal. Compare the fur on the head side of the line relative to the fur on the tail side of the line. The shedding and replacement will continue until the entire prairie dog has new fur.

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