Best known for their large colonies, complex burrows, and frequent alarm calls, prairie dogs are diurnal, herbivorous rodents endemic to the grasslands of western North America. Prairie Dogs synthesizes forty-five consecutive years of John Hoogland鈥檚 pioneering field research on the ecology and social behavior of these remarkable animals, including many far-reaching discoveries published here for the first time.
Hoogland investigates all four species of prairie dogs that inhabit the western United States, offering invaluable insights about cooperation and competition among social animals living under natural conditions. He examines topics ranging from alarm calls, mating, predation, and vigilance to conservation, dispersal, population dynamics, and potential avenues for future research. Hoogland presents a wealth of new findings, describing how prairie dogs give alarm calls not only for offspring but also for more distant kin such as nieces, nephews, and first cousins. He documents how females reap substantial benefits from copulating with more than one male; how they avoid incest with offspring, parents, and siblings but regularly copulate with more distant kin; how nonparental infanticide is a major cause of juvenile mortality and varies directly with colony density; and how females of one species improve reproductive success by killing nearby ground squirrels.
Rich in personal stories and comparisons with more than five hundred other species ranging from amoebas to humans, this beautifully illustrated book is essential reading for behavioral ecologists and conservation biologists as well as mammalogists and curious naturalists. Hoogland鈥檚 magnum opus offers a master class in how to do careful long-term research.
John Hoogland is Professor Emeritus of Wildlife Ecology at the Appalachian Laboratory of the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science. He is the author of The Black-Tailed Prairie Dog: Social Life of a Burrowing Mammal and the editor of Conservation of the Black-Tailed Prairie Dog: Saving North America’s Western Grasslands.
“A data-rich and reader-friendly narrative of prairie dogs, North America’s most social rodents. Presenting more than forty-five years of field research, John Hoogland provides detailed comparisons among species, sexes, life stages, and individuals—as well as photographs and anecdotes. This instant classic will be the go-to reference for professionals and will inspire budding naturalists.”—Paul W. Sherman, Cornell University
“For many years, Hoogland’s classic studies of prairie dogs have provided an understanding of competition and cooperation in animal societies and an introduction to the opportunities, challenges, and joys of field studies. Prairie Dogs will absorb, provoke, and entrance all those interested in the evolution of animal societies for years to come and will encourage new students to follow Hoogland’s repeated recipe for success: catch ’em, mark ’em, and watch ’em.”—Tim Clutton-Brock, University of Cambridge, author of Mammal Societies
“Hoogland brings us into the entrancing world of prairie dogs with stories of vigilance and alarm calling, mate guarding and mate evading, infanticide and cooperative nursing, and many mouthfuls of grass—in short, everything in an above-ground prairie dog’s life. This gripping read not only tells us much about prairie dogs, it also lets us into the mind of a first-rate scientist. A must-read.”—Joan E. Strassmann, author of The Social Lives of Birds: Flocks, Communes, and Families
“Prairie Dogs is a tour de force that addresses every relevant topic in behavioral ecology, and at a remarkable level of detail. But this is no dense tome. The narrative is eminently readable and clear as Hoogland takes the reader on a journey of discovery.”—Dirk Van Vuren, University of California, Davis
“This book is quite a feat. The prose is engaging and the wealth of insights and new information is amazing. John Hoogland is the only person who could have written such a compendium covering so many behavioral topics in four species of prairie dogs.”—Nancy Solomon, Miami University
“The book is a stellar scholarly achievement that asks (and answers) key questions about the adaptive value of sociality in a set of closely related species. It wonderfully illustrates how an inspired naturalist and behavioral ecologist thinks and works in the field. It will be an inspiration to future generations of field-oriented behavioral ecologists and mammalogists.”—Daniel Blumstein, University of California, Los Angeles
“Hoogland presents findings from an extensive, and impressive, long-term data set focused on four species of prairie dogs in the western United States. He covers many aspects of their behavior—from sociality and mating systems to reproduction, parental care, population ecology, and vocalizations—and uses these species to test many important hypotheses in behavioral ecology. He also succeeds in conveying a sense of the enormous amount of time and effort spent observing these animals over time, and the rewards of doing so. Prairie Dogs is a valuable contribution to our understanding of this group of animals.”—Christine Maher, University of Southern Maine
