[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Prairie Dogs Have Own Language (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 12/5/2004 9:22:28 PM EDT
After buying and watching the video from dogbegone.com I'd say that a lot of P-Dogs haven't read this. www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=108412 Scientist: Prairie Dogs Have Own Language ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- Prairie dogs, those little pups popping in and out of holes on vacant lots and rural rangeland, are talking up a storm. They have different "words" for tall human in yellow shirt, short human in green shirt, coyote, deer, red-tailed hawk and many other creatures. They can even coin new terms for things they've never seen before, independently coming up with the same calls or words, according to Con Slobodchikoff, a Northern Arizona University biology professor and prairie dog linguist. Prairie dogs of the Gunnison's species, which Slobodchikoff has studied, speak different dialects in Grants and Taos, N.M.; Flagstaff, Ariz.; and Monarch Pass, Colo., but they would likely understand one another, the professor says. "So far, I think we are showing the most sophisticated communication system that anyone has shown in animals," Slobodchikoff said. Slobodchikoff has spent the last two decades studying prairie dogs and their calls, mostly in Arizona, but also in New Mexico and Colorado. Prairie dog chatter is variously described by observers as a series of yips, high-pitched barks or eeks. And most scientists think prairie dogs simply make sounds that reflect their inner condition. That means all they're saying are things like "ouch" or "hungry" or "eek." But Slobodchikoff believes prairie dogs are communicating detailed information to one another about what animals are showing up in their colonies, and maybe even gossiping. Linguists have set five criteria that must be met for something to qualify as language: It must contain words with abstract meanings; possess syntax in which the order of words is part of their meaning; have the ability to coin new words; be composed of smaller elements; and use words separated in space and time from what they represent. "I've been chipping away at all of these," Slobodchikoff said. He and his students have done work in the field and in a laboratory. With digital recorders, they record the calls prairie dogs make as they see different people, dogs of different sizes and with different coat colors, hawks, elk. They analyze the sounds using a computer that dissects the underlying structure and creates a sonogram, or visual representation of the sound. Computer analysis later identifies the similarities and differences. The prairie dogs have calls for various predators but also for elk, deer, antelope and cows. "It's as if they're trying to inform one another what's out there," Slobodchikoff said. So far, he has recorded at least 20 different "words." Some of those words or calls were created by the prairie dogs when they saw something for the first time. Four prairie dogs in Slobodchikoff's lab were shown a great-horned owl and European ferret, two animals they had likely not seen before, if only because the owls are mostly nocturnal and this kind of ferret is foreign. The prairie dogs independently came up with the same new calls. In the field, black plywood cutouts showing the silhouette of a coyote, a skunk and an oval shape were randomly run along a wire through the prairie dog colony. "There are no black ovals running around out there and yet they all had the same word for black oval," Slobodchikoff said. He guesses the prairie dogs are genetically programmed with some vocabulary and the ability to describe things. Slobodchikoff has also played back a recorded prairie dog alarm call for coyote in a prairie dog colony when no coyote was around. The prairie dogs had the same escape response as they did when the predator was really there. "There's no coyote present, but the prairie dogs hear this and they say, 'Oh, coyote. Better hide,'" Slobodchikoff said. Computer analysis has been able to break down some prairie dog calls into different components, suggesting the critters have yet another element of a real language. "We're chipping away with this at the idea that animals don't have language," Slobodchikoff said. |
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LMFAO. Tell that to the 300+ that couldnt pull their collective asses out in time to run down a hole last summer! Although, I do believe they can say "Holy Fuck, where did Fred go?!" "Bob, get your ass out there and find him!" "I CHECKED ON HIS SORRY ASS LAST TIME!" "WE ALREADY DREW STRAWS, GET OUT THERE" At least, that would explain them checking out the piles of goo that has been left behind and then in turn getting blown up themselves 
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Holy crap.... I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Thank you!! That's some funny shit. I almost fell outta my chair, imagining all that while reading.
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Speaking of Flagstaff prairie dog whackos. Back when AZEX was in Flag and I was the happy Pappy of an intact family, we had this kid, Matt who worked in the shop. He was a little shithead and kinda lazy but he worked cheap and I needed the blasting help. Anyway. He has probs with his POS car and asks me to drive him to the other side of Flagstaff to get some car stuff from his Aunt's house. She's some lawyer up there and so we go. So we drive the back way over there through some crazy ass mountain road so I dont have to go through town and all the lights, and this lady lives just out of town on the north side in this HUGE house. I walk inside to meet her and Matt's sister, the Aunt, and her daughter are sitting there, with the whole dining room table covered in Xmas cookie makin's. They making snowballs or some such. As I can see by standing there, the Aunt is also a "prairie dog activist" (yeah, I was laughing inside too but trying to be cool about it. It was Christmas time and I was a guest) Matt is outside getting his parts and I'm chatting about where I live and how much I love being a new smith who is doing well. The Aunt says "Oh, I know where you live, right up the street at the Elementary School, we spent a weekend relocating a Prairie Dog family so they could build the school." Without missing a beat I say. "I've relocated quite a few of them myself and I've only been out there a couple months." Matt's sister was the only one quick enough to "get it" and was laughing SO hard she had to leave the "cookie table" and go into the other room where I could hear her trying to not find my comment so funny. The Aunt and daughter took about a minute to figure out my comment and conversation was a bit terse from that point on. LMAO! Fuck the Prairie Rat. PS. I've shot them and seen the others come over to the still-twitching corpse, especially in drought condidtions and begin eating it. Now that's fucking disgusting. I wonder what the Prarie Rat word is for "If you get tagged we're gonna eat your flesh" D. AZEX |
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You can't shoot them anymore in CO. Some dumb "Protect the black tailed prarie dogs!" thing. Now you have to find someone who has them on their land and then only if they are destructive. At least I believe that is how it works. Edited to say: But what do they say when a puff of dirt hits inches away from them? ..... NOTHING! They just sit there while you reload! Oh ya, but they are smart enough to have a language. LMAO! |
One of my favorite Prairie Dog stories was when a friend and I were sitting on big rock eating lunch when I had to sneeze real bad. I tried to stop it and my nose made a really loud PEEP! I guess I must have said something in prairie dog because one popped out from a hole right in front of us to see what it was. It found a 12 gauge target load Digital |
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Yeah, hurting animals just for fun is sooooooooo cooool!!! Wasn't there a quote by some guy who lived 2000 years ago: "What you have done to the smallest of Mine, you have done unto Me". I guess you all know him personally and can be sure that he meant "humans only, of course".  And for those who try to rationalize their killing spree ("dangerous to cattle"), maybe some facts will motivate the grey mass in your head. Or are you simply proud of having no clue? |
Uh, I wonder if anyone has told this crazy woman about this little bug called the GOLDEN MANTELED GROUND SQUIRREL FLEA??? It carries a cute little micro organism called yersina pestis..................which just happens to be the cause of THE FRIGGIN' PLAGUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ya know what? On second thought, I hope she finds out for herself. 
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HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! We even have our own animal rights activist??????? Damn! Time to just secede from the Union and start our own country! 
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I imagine that Jesus would be a pretty good shot! |
Oh, look, a troll! Well, let's take a look at that link there...
Who said anything about the black-tailed variant? And they sure as hell can't be talkign about other variants...
...and the other kinds of prairie dogs? Let's expound upon that one...
Would you want to have a man who rarely murders his neighbors, living next door? After all, it's rarely, right? What are the odds?
Yah, how? so when the cow breaks it's leg(s) and falls, the prarie dogs feast for weeks on it? Just read the whole paragraph and it's all about how they prefer to graze together. How on earth is that mutually benifical? Just because I like to have lunch with people from work doesn't make my dining experience mutually benifical to them. It's a fact that underground dens and tunnels destroy the grass roots, weaken the soil overhead, and causes broken legs in animals of all sorts. But, let's move on.
How can they miss them WHEN THEY WON'T GO AWAY?  |
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other info Varmints (Back to Top) 1. Black-tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicianus)  Prairie dogs are not really dogs. They are squirrels, a rodent, members of the Sciuridae family, with 267 species in 49 genera that are widely distributed around much of the world (except for Australia and polar and desert areas). Several species of prairie dogs are found in North America, with the black-tailed variety by far the most common, and the most frequently sought after by varmint hunters. It is found in colonies on the Great Plains between southern Canada and northern Mexico. Black-tailed prairie dogs can be found in the western parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, plus central and eastern Montana, and the eastern areas of Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. They live in the short grass and mixed grass prairies of the western Great Plains right up to the Rocky Mountains. The second most common variety of prairie dogs is the white-tailed, found in central and western Wyoming, central and western Colorado, central and northwestern New Mexico, central and northeastern Arizona, and a band across the middle of Utah from the southwest corner of the state to the northeast corner. Other varieties of prairie dogs include the Utah, Gunnison's, and Mexican. None of these are widely distributed or found in large numbers. Adult prairie dogs typically weigh from two to three pounds and are about 14 to 16 inches long. Prairie dogs breed in February and March, and the gestation period is about 30 to 35 days. A typical litter is four to five young, though numbers may range from two to as many as ten. Average lifespan is about five years for males and seven years for females. Because prairie dogs are rather prolific breeders, their towns continually expand as individuals dig new burrows at the edges of the existing town boundaries. Occasionally prairie dogs will even migrate for miles to establish new territories and start new colonies. Prairie dogs are burrowing animals and live in underground tunnels and chambers, which they excavate. An entrance shaft may go down as far as 14 feet, with long tunnels leading to various chambers, including a listening post near the entrance, toilet chambers, food storage, sleeping areas, and a nursery. The main entrance to the burrow is ringed with a built-up conical structure several inches (usually from about six inches to a foot) higher than the surrounding area. This cone is constructed by prairie dogs using dirt brought up from underground when the tunnel system is dug. A second entrance usually is not built up as high or not elevated at all. The built-up ring around the main entrance serves as a lookout post from which the prairie dogs watch for danger, usually predators that feed on prairie dogs. It is kept free of vegetation. The built-up entrance rim also aids in providing ventilation to the tunnels. A slight vacuum is created when air flows over the rim, and this helps pull fresh air through the burrow from the other entrance. The prairie dog family unit is called a coterie and is comprised of one male, usually three or four females, and the young less than a year old. Occasionally a male will keep more than one coterie. Females in the coterie often are related, and usually there is cooperation among them in watching the young. Females may even nurse the pups of other females. However, sometimes females may suddenly kill the young of others, for reasons not fully understood by scientists. It may be a way of ensuring her own young have enough to eat. When prairie dogs meet each other they may touch noses and front teeth in a gesture that, to humans, looks like kissing. It is not courtship, though. It's a form of identification and recognition among members of their own coterie. When prairie dogs meet those from other coteries, they usually are cautious and tentative. During warmer months the territorial boundaries between coteries are fairly relaxed, with exchanges common. By fall, boundaries become more fixed, and exchanges may not be tolerated. An individual that has strayed into the territory of another coterie usually ends up leaving. Part of the social structure of prairie dogs includes grooming each other, clearing insects, dirt, or plant parts from the coats of others with their teeth. Prairie dogs are vocal creatures and communicate with each other. When danger, such as a predator, approaches, a prairie dog may chirp and flick its tail to signal alarm. Other prairie dogs repeat the signal before diving into their tunnels for protection. When danger has passed, a prairie dog will jump into the air with its forelegs raised and toss its head back while whistling a "yip." This appears to be an "all-clear" signal and is called the "jump-yip" display. Research indicates that prairie dogs may have at least nine vocalizations. The danger signal is pretty important to prairie dogs because other animals consider them lunch. Badgers, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, snakes, hawks, and eagles all prey on prairie dogs. Prairie dog burrows provide protection from most of these predators, but badgers are capable of digging out prairie dogs, and snakes and the rare black-footed ferrets can descend into prairie dog tunnels. Prairie dogs do not hibernate in the winter. During the summer they store grass in their burrows to eat during the winter, and they do spend much of the winter sleeping. However, despite snow on the ground, prairie dogs are known to come out of their burrows occasionally in the winter, especially on sunny days. Some rodents cause damage to agricultural crops, and prairie dogs are one such species. Prairie dogs feed in the area where they live, and they tend to bite off plants close to the ground so they have a better field of view for spotting predators. They cut off plants near the ground, then stand with the plant stem in their front paws and nibble on it. These eating habits keep vegetation low, creating problems for ranchers who are trying to raise cattle in the same area and would prefer the grass went to their livestock rather than the prairie dogs. While cattle may eat some plants that prairie dogs don't, and prairie dogs may eat some plants that cattle don't, there certainly is a lot of overlap in plants that both species eat. The problem is compounded in dry years, when prairie dogs may nibble grass down to the bare dirt. And dry years are not uncommon on the Great Plains. Also, where crops like wheat or alfalfa are planted near prairie dog colonies, the animals can do extensive damage to these fields. Many ranchers are willing to tolerate some prairie dogs on their land but when dog numbers reach the point that they create a problem by eating too much grass, ranchers want them controlled. That is where varmint hunters come into the picture. Prairie dogs can be controlled by poison, but that's expensive for ranchers. Further, poison is not selective; some animals other than prairie dogs may die from eating the poisoned oats. Shooting prairie dogs is selective; only the targeted animals are eliminated. And allowing hunters to control prairie dog numbers costs ranchers nothing. Shooting can help keep prairie dog numbers in check but it's impossible to shoot them all in any one area because the animals get too wary and simply disappear down their holes. Poison, in contrast, may kill more than 90 percent of the prairie dogs in the area that's poisoned. |
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To the PETA wanker on here. 1. I'm not a Christian, so save it. 2. I shoot things for fun. So sue me. The animals which were put here for me to shoot include (but are not limited to) Pigeons (city type) blech, foul creatures. Prairie Rats, ditto seagulls (see ocean-going pigeon) jackrabbits (good, clean redneck fun) You'd be surprised that in my shooting groups, I'm usually the one who is the MOST restrictive in my choices of targets. I've even refused to speak to my best friend for a month because he shot a porcupine. (Now, while I'm not a porcupine activist, and the woods do seem to be full of them, there's a certain matter that they can neither fly nor move with any great speed, so shooting them is kinda fucked-up IMO.) I dont let anyone shoot cottontails or any game animal when we're out night blasting. (cept that one I thought was a jackrabbit last year (sorry little buddy) So in short, STFU. D. AZEX |
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We dont hurt them, we kill them. Different proposition entirely. And WTF is "AUT"? does this mean that you're Autistic? If this means "Austria" then that means you're a Euro and you get a double "fuck you" from me. AMERICA! FUCK YEAH! D. AZEX
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Here we come to save the mother fuckin' day, YEAH!!!!!!!! ( from the evil of Prairie Dogs ) another note....our resident animal rights guy stated that Prarie Rats rarely give plague to humans...no kiddin' IT'S THE BACTERIUM FROM THE FRICKIN FLEA!!!!! |
Hurting prairie dogs is fun. I don't have a clue, I have a 700 Remington VLS in .223. It's my instrument for communicating with prairie dogs. Seriously, prairie dogs and ground hogs are the only animals I hunt. They are pests and their habits are destructive. I do not hunt other animals, but I don't criticize those who do. |
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Gimme ONE DAY with Cato and I guarantee he/she would be beggin' for more ammo in order to nail more prarie dogs....just LOOKING AT ONE makes ya wanna shoot 'em....they're more addictive than crack!!!!!!! |
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I need to call a Bull fuckin shit for that myth page. Praire dog DO NOT improve forage FOR SHIT. IF mowing off a half acre down to dirt is improving forage, maybe I need to quit the farmin business. Biggest line of shit I have ever heard. I should go take pictures this spring out of rapidly 3-4 holes worth of dogs can destroy a field. Cuts hay production in half easy, if not more. Praire dogs are good however, for allowing me to better my marksmen skills. Go learn something in the real world before you throw retarded animal humper links at me. |
Goddamn! I don't know you, but you just made me a customer!  I'll support almost anybody like that. On anoher note, I need to head out west and find out what this prairie dog shooting is all about. Sounds like loads of fun. |
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I think that list of myths might be a myth itself. We hunted northeastern Colorado last year on private land. They said the little bastards reproduced so fast that poisoning had almost no noticible effect a year later. They took over a golf course and ravaged a cemetery. They eat grass down to the roots and then eat the roots. The ranchers were glad to see us and the people of Colorado, except the toll road assholes in Denver, treated us very well. The ranchers wished we could come out more often. We did too. They are destructive little shits. They are fun to slaughter. 
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Whoa, whoa. Whether you believe the Bible or not, at least don't misquote it. NIV: Matthew 25 [34] "Then the King will say to those on his right, `Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. [35] For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, [36] I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' [37] "Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? [38] When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? [39] When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' [40] "The King will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' You're skipping the little detail of "brothers" (which, BTW, is in the original Greek). If you want to stretch it to mean that Jesus calls creatures not made in his image to be "brothers", I can't stop you. But DO NOT misquote the Bible, even if you don't believe it. Feeding time is now over. |
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Ok this is an open invite to any of you on the west coast... Contact me in Feb of next year and Ill set it up for you to tag along... A friend and I have 2 ranches we shoot on every year. So I can set up a small trip for those interested. Longest shot so far has been 453 yards. We will be setting it up for 1000+ yard shots next year.
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+1.... I was waiting for someone to set that retard strait! Funny how you read the actual text, which is simple and easy to understand, and then somebody, who shall remain nameless, quotes a little part of it and twists it to their own ends. It is laughable to read their interpretation of it. HA! 
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Hey, you don't need to rip on someone just because they don't like shooting living things. Sure, he shouldn't rip on others, but what the hell...be the bigger man. [Lord Humongous]Just walk away![/Lord Humongous] Note: I enjoy 'sploding whistlepigs with my 10/22. I like it alot. |