The two RV Gypsies only found reference to 5 types of prairie dogs: Black-tailed, White-tailed, Gunnison's, Mexican, and Utah Prairie Dogs. The white-tailed prairie dog is tan-brown in color, with large eyes and a dark patch on their cheeks above and below each eye and are not said to be located in SD. There is a small black mark under one eye of some of the prairie dogs here, so that must be what they are. The ads seen in this area described the white prairie dog as white fur, but brown skin and they are not albino, and they were advertised as only being located here and nowhere else.
The fur of the prairie dogs photographed here was not pure white as it had a bit of light brown also, as seen in the photos below. Whether they are or are not white-tailed prairie dogs, they were interesting to the two RV Gypsies. |
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Prairie dogs (genus Cynomys) are herbivorous burrowing rodents native to the grasslands of North America. The five species are: black-tailed, white-tailed, Gunnison's, Utah, and Mexican prairie dogs. They are a type of ground squirrel, found in the United States, Canada and Mexico. 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. Despite the name, they are not canines. |
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The Ranch Store of the Badlands along old Highway 16 in Kadoka, SD encourages people to feed the Prairie Dogs. There were children running all over the place chasing the prairie dogs and trying to pet them. The two RV Gypsies did not like that place much and left. |
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