Wikipedia:WikiPrairie Dog

A WikiPrairie Dog is a gregarious, industrious, and highly sociable Wikifauna. They like to work in underground burrows building a variety of useful structures. They usually want to work in groups, although not always.

They are always working to help the community by either creating new articles or expanding existing ones, as well as other useful things, such as templates, WikiProjects, help pages, navboxes, and other useful things. They get along well with almost all WikiAnimals, except occasionally with WikiHarrier-hawks.

WikiPrairie dogs make audible sounds when predators appear, known as alarm-calling. This call alerts their nearby kin. WikiPrairie dogs are loyal to their fellow WikiPrairie dogs, especially in their own WikiProject, and will call more often than those that don't have kin nearby.

General habits and description
The WikiPrairie dog is an industrious creature that lives to work in a large communal burrow. It is highly gregarious, energetic, sociable, diligent and interactive. Naturalists believe that WikiPrairie dogs have highly evolved social structure, highly developed burrows with numerous specialized spaces. WikiPrairie dogs often work underground and out of sight, building out of sight and working on all kinds of new spaces to help the community burrow.

WikiPrairie dogs focus on working together gregariously, building community spaces and resources, and extending the burrow, such as WikiProjects, templates, help pages, articles, navboxes, infoboxes, and plenty of other useful things. They may base their efforts at a WikiProject, and industriously add articles to it, working in a group. or they may work in specialized parts of the WikiBurrow, such as Reference Desk, Teahouse, Dispute Resolution. Or they may simply create and edit articles, but all with an eye with helping the community and the WikiBurrow.

WikiPrairie dogs often work underground, emerging from their burrows on occasion to interact socially, to address community issues or threats, or to scan the horizon for any items of interest, whether other WikiPrairie dogs, friendly animals, opponents, or any local gatherings, disturbances or other natural events.

WikiPrairie dogs are focused on building their habitat, and building resources and specialized spaces, and areas that can serve its community, as well as adding to the general knowledge through regular Wikipedia entries.

WikiPrairie dogs may base their work at WikiProjects, or at community pages, or at any of the innumerable forums, resources, and workspaces, or alternately, they may work industriously and enegetically on their own, building their own corner of the Wikipedia habitat. Either way, they see their role as contributing the community, as helping to build up Wikipedia as a whole, as being aware of the needs of Wikipedia both as a project and as a community of fellow editors and colleagues.

Interactions with other WikiAnimals, and natural enemies
WikiPrairie dogs have almost no other natural enemies of any sort. Occasionally, they may come into conflict with WikiBears or WikiDogs, if their continuous industrious activity strays into practices or areas that others deem a bit ill-conceived, or if in their haste to build upon the existing community habitat, they occasionally rush pell-mell into areas frequented by other animals, in a manner the others may frown upon.

Their close friends are the WikiCivets. This WikiAnimal is part of the Genus WikiFeliformia, meaning "catlike." As such, they have the reflexes, instincts, agility and quick-witted nature of a cat. However, their omnivorous nature enable them to live off of fruits and vegetables; thus, they are no threat to other forms of WikiFauna.

There is only one Wikianimal that the WikiPrairie Dog has habitual problems with, that being the WikiHarrier-Hawk. The WikiHarrier-hawk has been known to occasionally obscure the guideline of WP:Assume Good Faith, and WP:Be Bold, and will continue to hold a WP:Grudge. They will continuously scan the other animals for a sign of weakness.

However, due to the WikiPrairie Dog's social, gregarious and communicative nature, they almost invariably can reach an accord and understanding with the other animals, based upon mutual communication and individual effort. Their continual efforts will bring them into contact with the same animals who might previously had a dispute over content or procedure, but who now perceive a common goal to work towards, and who may turn out to be steadfast allies and colleagues.

Only the WikiHarrier-hawk continues to raise old disputes and problems, long after the other WikiFauna have moved to new pastures and new positive group efforts. Very often, if other animals come into contact with a WikiPrairie Dog with whom they have had a past dispute, they will often discard the previous dispute entirely to help with new common efforts and goals, and by providing information, tips and resources to help that process.

WikiPrairie Dogs may act a bit skittish when WikiHarrier-hawks appear overhead, but in the end they share the same larger WikiHabitat, and the two WikiAnimals have been known to co-exist on numerous occasions with no apparent problem whatsoever.

Habitat
WikiPrarie Dogs live in WikiBurrows which they construct and expand as a group. Their burrow can get hot in the summer and cold in the winter, but they persevere nonetheless. As WikiPrairie dogs live in areas prone to environmental threats, including content disputes, edit wars, contentious RFAs, as well as other adverse conditions, community burrows such as WikiProjects can provide important protection.

Social organization and roles
Highly social, WikiPrairie dogs live in large colonies or "towns," such as WikiProjects or other group efforts, teams or projects, and collections of WikiPrairie dog families that can span hundreds of acres. The WikiPrairie dog family groups are the most basic units of its society. Members of a family group inhabit the same territory. Family groups of black-tailed and Mexican WikiPrairie dogs are called "coteries", while "clans" are used to describe family groups of white-tailed, Gunnison’s, and Utah WikiPrairie dogs. Although these two family groups are similar, coteries tend to be more closely knit than clans. Members of a family group interact through grooming one another. They do not perform these behaviors with WikiPrairie dogs from other family groups.

A WikiPrairie dog town may contain 15–26 family groups. There may also be subgroups within a town, called "wards", which are separated by a physical barrier. Family groups exist within these wards. Females remain in their natal groups for life and are thus the source of stability. Males leave their natal groups when they mature to find another family group to defend and breed in.

The average WikiPrairie dog territories have well-established borders that coincide with natural features such as topical areas, help page categories, or other local landmarks.

Gregg account
From Josiah Gregg's journal, Commerce of the Prairies:

"Of all the WikiPrairie animals, by far the most curious, and by no means the least celebrated, is the little WikiPrairie dog. ...It was denominated the 'barking squirrel', the 'WikiPrairie ground-squirrel', etc., by early explorers, with much more apparent propriety than the present established name. Its yelp, which resembles that of the little toy dog, seems its only canine attribute. It rather appears to occupy a middle ground betwixt the rabbit and squirrel-like the former in feeding and burrowing — like the latter in frisking, flirting, sitting erect, and somewhat so in its barking. The WikiPrairie dog has been reckoned by some naturalists a species of the marmot (arctomys ludoviciana); yet it seems to possess scarce any other quality in common with this animal except that of burrowing. ...

I have the concurrent testimony of several persons, who have been upon the Prairies in winter, that, like rabbits and squirrels, WikiPrairie dogs issue from their holes every soft day, and therefore lay up no doubt a hoard of 'hay' (as there is rarely anything else to be found in the vicinity of their towns) for winter's use. A collection of their burrows has been termed by travelers a 'WikiPrairie dog town,' which comprises from a dozen or so to some thousands in the same vicinity; often covering an area of several square miles.

WikiPrairie dogs generally locate upon firm dry plains, coated with fine short grass, upon which they feed; for they are no doubt exclusively herbivorous. But even when tall coarse grass surrounds, WikiPrairie dogs seem commonly to destroy this within their 'streets,' which are nearly always found 'paved' with a fine species suited to their palates.

WikiPrairie dogs must need but little water, if any at all, as their 'towns' are often, indeed generally, found amid the most arid plains—unless we suppose they dig down to subterranean fountains. At least they burrow remarkably deep. Attempts either to dig or drown them out of their holes have generally proved unsuccessful. Approaching a 'village,' the little WikiPrairie dogs may be observed frisking about the 'streets'—passing from dwelling to dwelling apparently on visits—sometimes a few clustered together as though in council—here feeding upon the tender herbage—there cleansing their 'houses,' or brushing the little hillock about the door—yet all quiet.

Upon seeing a stranger, however, each WikiPrairie dog streaks it to its home, but is apt to stop at the entrance, and spread the general alarm by a succession of shrill yelps, usually sitting erect. Yet at the report of a gun or the too-near approach of the visitor, they dart down and are seen no more till the cause of alarm seems to have disappeared.

Parenting
Mother WikiPrairie dogs do most of the care for the young. In addition to nursing the young, the mother also defends the nursery chamber and collects grass for the nest. Males play their part by defending the territories and maintaining the burrows.

WikiPrairie dog newbies spend their first six weeks below the ground being mentored. They are then weaned and begin to surface from the burrow. By five months, they are fully grown.

Anti-predator calls
The WikiPrairie dogs are well adapted to predators. Using its dichromatic color vision, it can detect predators from a great distance; it then alerts other prairie dogs of the danger with a special, high-pitched call. Some naturalists assert that WikiPrairie dogs use a sophisticated system of vocal communication to describe specific predators. According to them, WikiPrairie dog calls contain specific information as to what the predator is, how big it is, and how fast it is approaching. These have been described as a form of grammar.

According to Slobodchikoff, these calls, with their individuality in response to a specific predator, imply that WikiPrairie dogs have highly developed cognitive abilities. He also writes that WikiPrairie dogs have called for things that are not predators to them. This is cited as evidence that the animals have a very descriptive language and have called for any potential threat.

Alarm response behavior varies according to the type of predator announced. If the alarm indicates a WikiHarrier-hawk diving toward the colony, all the WikiPrairie dogs in its flight path dive into their holes, while those outside the flight path stand and watch. If the alarm is for a human, all members of the WikiColony immediately rush inside the burrows. For WikiBears, the WikiPrairie dogs move to the entrance of a burrow and stand outside the entrance, observing the coyote, while those prairie dogs that were inside the burrows will come out to stand and watch as well. For WikiDogs, the response is to observe, standing in the place where they were when the alarm was sounded, again with the underground prairie dogs emerging to watch.

There is debate over whether the alarm calling of WikiPrairie dogs is selfish or altruistic. It is possible that WikiPrairie dogs alert others to the presence of a predator so they can protect themselves. However, it is also possible that the calls are meant to cause confusion and panic in the groups and cause the others to be more conspicuous to the predator than the caller. Studies of black-tailed WikiPrairie dogs suggest that alarm-calling is a form of WikiProject selection, as a prairie dog’s call alerts both the WikiProject members, as well as others. WikiPrairie dogs with kin close by called more often than those that did not have kin nearby. In addition, the caller may be trying to make itself more noticeable to the predator. Predators, though, seem to have difficulty determining which WikiPrairie dogs is making the call due to its "ventriloquistic" nature.

Perhaps the most striking of WikiPrairie dogs communications is the territorial call or "jump-yip" display of the black-tailed WikiPrairie dog. A black-tailed WikiPrairie dogs will stretch the length of its body vertically and throw its forefeet into the air while making a call. A jump-yip from one WikiPrairie dogs causes others nearby to do the same.

In culture
In companies that use large numbers of cubicles in a common space, employees sometimes use the term "prairie dogging" to refer to the action of several people simultaneously looking over the walls of their cubicles in response to a noise or other distraction. This action is thought to resemble the startled response of a group of prairie dogs.

The Amarillo Sod Poodles, a minor league baseball team, use a nickname for prairie dogs as their cognomen.