The black-tailed prairie dog is a rodent found in the Great Plains of the US. The black tailed is the most common kind of prairie dog. Prairie dogs are considered a “keystone” species because their colonies create islands of habitats that benefit approximately 150 other species.
Black tailed prairie dogs consume resources such as grasses, insects, seeds, and roots. As the resources increase so does the amount of black tailed prairie dogs. Although, the prairie dog population has a lot of predators, like badgers, bob-cats, coyotes, and many other mammals that can harm the population of these animals. It is a slow growth of this population because the females only have birth in the spring. As the population reaches its biotic potential it has exponential growth and then it reaches the point that it has limited resources and causes the population to have its carrying capacity.
The female prairie dog mates in March and gives birth to about 3-4 dogs in April or May because of this the population stays high. The birth rate also increase because the animals are birthed in an area with plenty of resources which help them grow faster and stronger. The death rate of prairie dogs is common that is because they are prey of many predators and as the predators increase, the prairie dogs decrease. Although prairie dogs have a high chance of death, they rebound quickly after a natural or unnatural crash in their population because individuals can grow faster and survive better.
The black tailed prairie dogs are immigrating to the grasslands because they have found more resources that will benefit them better than their last habitat. They emigrated from Texas because the prairie dogs had little resources and their population wasn't increasing therefore they left that area. Two density-dependent limiting factors that have affected this population are the competition and the predation; they had to compete with other animals for grass and they were being hunted by their predators. Two density-independent limiting factors are drought and human activity. The drought caused the prairie dog grass to dry out and that decreased their amount of resources. The human population started building houses and making a community on their habitat.