Ever since fall break ended and the weather had some weird fluctuations, the prairie dogs have been acting odd. There was an incident with my sister a few nights ago on October 13th where P. Diddy bit her harder than usual. This caught my attention because they never do that, especially that hard. At first I thought it was their territorial attitude towards their wheel, but I then tried to pet them away from the wheel and they still reacted aggressively. After quite awhile of research I found that these prairie dogs do react to weather change because of winter mating season. Both males and females get aggressive when winter hits due to hormone increase. This is also why my prairie dogs chatter their teeth. They do this because they are experiencing protective instincts. This bizarre act has been going on all week since break. They have also been doing other odd things like messing with each other. They are constantly flipping the wheel over onto the other one and then sitting on top of it to trap them in. They have also been chewing on the wooden hunt obsessively and we have had to take it out most of the time. We have also had to take the wheel away due to them trapping each other.
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The hunt after being chewed on for a few days. Picture taken by Kayla Polley.
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While I was researching the weird behaviors of my prairie dogs I found a Youtube video of someone else's prairie dog doing exactly what mine are doing. This is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl1XyKIGdTc
In this video, the hair on the prairie dogs tail is standing up like the hair on the lower back of dogs and cats when they're scared. Another thing, is the sound that it was making which is apart of their complex language. This sound is showing anger or maybe even fear which is what mine sounded like at one point. However, the sound that mine made just today was a chattering noise, in which their teeth actually chattered. I looked it up, but all I found was that they do it when they are angry. So, until winter is over I am going to be a lot more cautious around them because I don't want to lose a finger anytime soon!
I have to say when i saw your post title I thought you might have prarie dogs in your back yard or something but when I came to find out you have them as pets i was left shocked. That video was the most adorable thing ever. I am a huge little critter fan. I have had hamster and guinea pigs and now I want a prairie dog, where can i get one? Just playing, I love how you research things about your prarie dogs when you have a question that is a very smart thing to do . keep up the good observations.
ReplyDeleteI can't help wondering if they should be pets. I don't mean to pass judgement, but are they dangerous? Are they unhappy?
ReplyDeleteThey are just like humans! How sometimes the weather affects with our moods. It's really interesting, I never expected an animal to get all agressive just because it's the winter.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why your prairie dogs are so protective during the winter. What are they protecting? My dog use to be really aggressive towards other male dogs. But it didn't have to do with the change in weather. What causes the agitation?
ReplyDeleteDo you know what gender they are? Maybe when they are trapping them under the wheel it is a fight for a female. I thought it was really interesting how they get a frenzy to go mate. I wonder if they get as crazy if they were in the wild.
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