[music playing]
HOST: Life in the Sonoran
is full of surprises.
It rains in the
summer, sometimes
violently, making it just
wet enough to sustain
a semi-arid version of
the Midwestern grasslands.
And with grasslands come
the US's most iconic
grass cutter, the prairie dog.
[music playing]
Prairie dogs are, of
course, not dogs at all,
but are in fact closely
related to ground squirrels.
Old-timers named them
for their dog-like bark.
[yip]
That's no simple yip.
Scientists currently
believe that prairie dogs--
[yipping]
--have the most
sophisticated vocal animal
language ever decoded.
[music playing]
They needed to warn each other.
[yipping]
Because in the Sonoran, of a
lot of things like to eat them,
including the badger.
[music playing]
They dig a complex
system of burrows.
But most mornings, they have
to leave to harvest grass.
It's a risky time.
So while one feeds, another
will keep a look out.
It takes a very social animal
to be this co-operative.
They groom each other
a bit like monkeys do.
And young prairie dogs
love to play fight.
[music playing]
The center of
prairie dog life is
the family, ruled by a dominant
male with a few females.
Families can live in large
neighborhoods of thousands.
Even as organized as
they are, it's still
tough to be a prairie dog.
Only half live past
their first year.
