Document: DEB-3-43-9

Cattle use of prairie dog towns on the shortgrass steppe of Colorado.

GUENTHER, D.A.* and J.K.DETLING

Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO, 80523, U.S.A. ¹

Abstract:
Studies on mixed-grass prairie have found that native large herbivores preferentially graze on prairie dog towns. We investigated use of prairie dog towns by cattle in Colorado by conducting surveys of cattle and vegetation on the Shortgrass Steppe LTER Site from JuneAugust, 1999. Twelve pastures containing 15 black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) towns were surveyed three times a week, and the number of cattle on the towns and their behavior was recorded. Three pastures were intensively surveyed twice weekly wherein the habitat and activity of a randomly chosen focal animal was recorded every six minutes for 3-4 hours. Bite and step counts of other individuals were recorded for five-minute intervals. Vegetation height and cover data were collected monthly. Vegetation on prairie dog towns was significantly (P<0.05) shorter on (mean = 4.6cm), than that off (mean = 11.3cm) prairie dog towns. Cattle randomly used the prairie dog towns observed on driving surveys. Towns occupied an average of 3% of the pastures, and cattle were present on them an average of 3.5% of the time. This was not significantly different from expected (P=0.64). The intensively surveyed pastures yielded similar results: i.e., cattle did not significantly prefer or avoid the prairie dog towns. This research indicates that cattle do not prefer to graze on prairie dog towns on the shortgrass steppe as bison (Bison bison) do on the mixed-grass prairie.

Keywords: black-tailed prairie dog, cattle, Cynomys ludovicianus, grazing, shortgrass steppe

This abstract is being presented at: 2:45 PM in session:
Oral Session #17: Mammalian Herbivory.