Join us as General Hospital Saves the World and you and me one episode at a time! This week, join us as we talk about the Black-tailed prairie dog and this amazing animal and its status as a Keystone Species, keeping the prairie ecosystem thriving, just like our benevolent mobster of Port Charles, Sonny Corinthos, keeps society heathy and functioning! These amazing small mammals also are quite the talkers and can talk trash with the best of our favorite characters on GH. Prairie dogs live their lives to the fullest during the day, being diurnal, not cathemeral like most of us and most folks in Port Charles. The Jump-Yip is their signature expression, leaping for joy or a warning or a ‘hey, everyone still out there’, with a loud bark (chirp) and standing up on their short hind legs! They are also quite the fashionistas, sporting varying brownish, white, tannish and some reddish coats. Like so many in Port Charles, this little cousin to the ground hog, which is found in New York, is key to the survival of many others. In particular for the prairie dog is the black-footed ferret, who needs them for 95% of their diet. And keeping in mind the constant danger these keepers of the prairie are always in, with constant threats from hawks, owls, coyotes and prairie rattlesnakes, they still live life to the fullest every day! The black-tailed prairie dog, like Sonny, Carly, Nina and Drew, go out everyday to keep building their prairie empires, having babies and talking trash on that yellow lab walking by!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4183310/
https://www.youtube.com/@AllCanadianReptileGirl
https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/animals-we-protect/black-footed-ferret/
https://www.prairiedoghoogland.com/vocalizations/