Stability Of Prairie Dog Colonies Make An Important Prey Source For Raptors In Great Plains, Study Finds

Experts said that the stability of prairie dog colonies make an important prey source for raptors in the Great Plains.

Nonbreeding raptors are vulnerable to many anthropogenic changes such as habitat fragmentation and increasing risk of collision, such as those with wind turbines, powerlines, or vehicles.

Colonial Burrowing

One aspect of habitat quality for raptors during winter has received comparably less attention: the role of colonial burrowing rodents such as prairie dogs as a reliable food source, and the effects of widespread reduction in prairie dog abundance and availability to non-breeding raptors.

The experts used a historical dataset of roadside surveys for raptors and prairie dogs in the Southern and Central Great Plains, including Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, USA, and the Mexican state of Chihuahua, to provide the most spatially and temporally expansive analysis to date of the potential role of prairie dogs in influencing presence and abundance of raptors.

In the study, they assessed patterns of co-occurrence among raptors and prairie dogs and modeled the response of selected species to weather, latitude, grassland cover, and prairie dog presence and abundance at multiple spatial scales.

During the study period, the researchers had detected at least 19 species of raptors and identified nine raptor species that co-occurred with prairie dogs more than expected by chance.

They also found evidence that occurrence of prairie dogs was related to presence and/or abundance of Ferruginous Hawks (Buteo regalis), Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), and Rough-legged Hawks (B. lagopus).

The study emphasized the association of prairie dogs with many wintering raptor species, especially Ferruginous Hawks and Golden Eagles, and indicates that prairie dogs may also be an important resource for Rough-legged Hawks and Bald Eagles during the nonbreeding season.

Climate Change Alters Reproduction

It was found that climate change could also result in changes when it comes to the cycles of prairie dog reproduction.

So far, the variation in climate norms has increased the occurrence of plague among colonial breeding rodents like prairie dogs.

If raptors feed on prairie dogs as often as this new study suggested, these shifts in prairie dog availability could push raptors to range further for food.

The further they range, the more often they encounter dangers like wind turbines, which have been shown to negatively affect golden eagles and ferruginous hawks.

Meanwhile, experts noted that this is of special concern for juvenile raptor which have a hard enough time during their first year of life without added stressors.

Studies have shown that raptors are bioindicators, which mean that they serve as proxies for habitat health.

Researchers said that raptors are playing a key part in naturally supporting ecosystem functioning as top predators on the landscape. Further, even with the reality of human-prairie dog conflict, there are pathways forward.

According to earlier studies, ranching can be compatible with diverse wildlife communities because many of the wildlife co-evolved with bison, and sustainable ranching was found to replicate that.