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Wildlife Gunnison's Prairie Dog Page
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 Photo by: R. B. Forbes |
Gunnison's Prairie Dog
Cynomys gunnisoni
Habitat: Gunnison's prairie dogs inhabit grasslands and semidesert and montane shrublands.
Diet: The diet consists mostly of grasses and sedges. For example, they eat borages, goosefoot, pigweed, lupine, dandelions, and mustards. In South Park, fescues, June-grass, muhly, sedges, rushes, paintbrush, senecio, chiming bells, prairie sage, big sage, and rabbitbrush were commonly used (J. Fitzgerald and Lechleitner 1974).
Description: This species is the smallest of Colorado's prairie dogs. Dorsal color is yellowish buff to cinnamon with numerous interspersed black hairs. The ventral color is slightly paler. The top of the head, cheeks, and superciliary line above the eyes are darker than the rest of the body but do not show the striking pattern exhibited by the white-tailed prairie dog. The terminal one-third of the tail is gray to dirty white in color. Measurements are: total length 300-390 mm; length of tail 40-64 mm; length of hindfoot 53-61 mm; weight 450-1,350 g.
Range in Colorado: Gunnison's prairie dogs are restricted to southwestern and south-central Colorado. They range in elevation from 1,830 to 3,660 m (6,000-12,000 ft).
Status: CDOW Other Game
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Species Occurrence Tool
(*) NDIS has no county occurrence data for fish at this time.
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