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Occurring in the southwestern part of the state, the Utah prairie dog is one of three prairie dog species found in Utah. Similar to other prairie dogs, Utah prairie dogs spend their time in colonies and hibernate during the winter.
From 1925-75, poisoning, land conversion and plague reduced prairie dog populations by 80 percent. But Utah prairie dogs were listed as an endangered species in 1973, and later re-classified as a threatened species in 1994. Since being listed, Utah prairie dog populations have rebounded and now more than 40,000 have been listed, mostly on private lands.
For more information on prairie dogs, check out our Utah field guide on our Outdoors page at ksltv.com, and watch the video for this week's complete segment.
