I took a photograph of a Black-tailed Prairie Dog with mud on its nose while I was at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. There is a Black-tailed Prairie Dog Town (where they live in colonies) on this Refuge, and you can always count on seeing several. Although the Refuge conducted a controlled burn in the main Prairie Dog Town, the Prairie Dogs were still out and about, working on their burrows.

Black tailed Prairie Dog With Muddy Nose
Black tailed Prairie Dog With Muddy Nose

The main Black-tailed Prairie Dog Town has a parking area with a wooden rail fence in front. I had a Fujifilm X-T3 camera with a Canon EF 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II lens attached with a Fringer EF-FX Pro. I braced my camera and lens on the fence to keep it steady.

Camera Settings

  • AV Mode
  • Aperture f5.6
  • ISO 800
  • Shutter speed – 1/850 sec.
  • Focal Length: 400 mm

Facts about Black-tailed Prairie Dogs found at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma:

  1. The Black-tailed Prairie Dog is a keystone species, meaning that it plays a crucial role in the ecosystem by creating burrows that are used by a variety of other animals, such as burrowing owls, rattlesnakes, and other small mammals.

  2. The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge is home to one of the largest Black-tailed Prairie Dog towns in the United States, with an estimated population of over 5,000 individuals.

  3. Black-tailed Prairie Dogs are highly social animals and live in large family groups called coteries. Each coterie is made up of one male, several females, and their offspring.

  4. Prairie Dogs are known for their unique communication system, which includes barks, chirps, and other vocalizations. They use different calls to alert their colony members of potential predators or to communicate with each other about food sources.

  5. The Black-tailed Prairie Dog is considered a threatened species in some parts of its range due to habitat loss, disease, and other factors. The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge plays an important role in conserving and protecting this species.

Here are a few photos I took this week at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge:

  1. Two Rio Grande Turkeys Displaying
  2. Charon’s Garden Wilderness