Utah prairie dog

The Utah prairie dog (Cynomys parvidens) is the smallest of the prairie dogs and lives only in the south-central steppes of Utah, which gives it the most restricted range of the five prairie dog species of the United States. Adults are roughly 30 to 36 centimetres long with a short tail, and males weigh somewhat more than females. The animals live in colonial towns of burrows, feed mainly on grasses, forbs and flowers with the occasional insect, forage from dawn to dusk, and hibernate through the harshest months of winter. Females raise a single litter a year, averaging close to four pups. The species is listed as Endangered by the IUCN and as threatened under the United States Endangered Species Act. Its numbers fell sharply in the twentieth century because of poisoning, shooting, plague and the loss of habitat, and recovery plans now rely on rangeland management and cooperation with landowners.