The Columbus (Ohio) Zoo and Aquarium asked residents who live nearby to keep an eye out for a group of prairie dogs that may have escaped zoo grounds. Eleven of the animals were able to get out of their temporary housing inside the facility, the zoo said on Friday. Four of the prairie dogs have been recovered.
"All of the prairie dog sightings, including ones within the past few days, are in the North America area of the zoo where the animals were kept," said assistant curator Jeremy Carpenter. "At this point we don't have any reason to believe they have left zoo property, but we decided to enlist the help of our neighbors just in case."
Officials said 20 of the animals were transferred to the zoo in November. A few weeks ago the prairie dogs were moved from quarantine to temporary quarters. That is where they managed to wiggle free, the zoo said.
Anyone living near the zoo who thinks they have seen a prairie dog was asked to call the zoo at 614-724-3612.
In mid-2003 the CDC instituted an outright ban on the sale, trade, and transport of prairie dogs within the United States. The European Union also banned importation of prairie dogs. While largely seen by exotic pet owners and vendors as unfair, the monkeypox scare that prompted the ban was not the only zoonosis incident associated with prairie dogs.
About Prairie Dogs:
Ecologists consider Prairie Dogs to be a keystone species. They are an important prey species, being the primary diet in prairie species. Other species, such as the Mountain Plover and the Burrowing Owl, also rely on prairie dog burrows for nesting areas. Even grazing species such as Plains Bison, Pronghorn, and Mule deer have shown a proclivity for grazing on the same land used by prairie dogs.
Nevertheless, prairie dogs are often identified as pests and exterminated from agricultural properties because they are capable of damaging crops, as they clear the immediate area around their burrows of most vegetation.
As a result, prairie dog habitat has been impacted by direct removal by ranchers and farmers as well as the more obvious encroachment of urban development which has greatly reduced their populations.
In 2010, Professor Con Slobodchikoff, a biologist from Northern Arizona University, has discovered that the prairie dogs can chat with advanced 'language', their distinct squeaky bark, which contains a great deal of information that can describe colours, size, directions of travel, speed and even different types of predator.
http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2011/01/07/story-powell-missing-prairie-dogs.html?sid=102
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_dog