Terrestrial vertebrate communities at black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) towns

We capitalized on a regional-scale, anthropogenic experiment—the reduction of black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) towns across the Great Plains of North America—to test the hypothesis that decline of this species has led to declines in diversity of native grassland vertebrates of this region. We compared species richness and species composition of non-volant mammals, reptiles and amphibians at 36 prairie dog towns and 36 paired sites in the Panhandle Region of Oklahoma during the summers and falls of 1997, 1998 and 1999. We detected 30 species of mammals, 18 species of reptiles and seven species of amphibians. Comparisons between communities at prairie dog towns and paired sites in the adjacent landscape indicated that while richness per se was not necessarily higher in towns, they did harbor significantly more rare and imperiled species. Species that were positively associated with prairie dog towns during one or both seasons (summer and fall) included badgers (Taxidea taxus), eastern cottontails (Sylvilagus floridanus), coyotes (Canis latrans), grasshopper mice (Onychomys leucogaster), swift fox (Vulpes velox), pronghorn antelopes (Antilocapra americana), striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), cattle, thirteen-lined ground squirrels (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus), black-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus califonicus), barred tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum), plains spadefoot toads (Scaphiopus bombifrons), Great Plains toad (Bufo cognatus), Woodhouse's toad (Bufo woodhousii), prairie rattlesnakes (Crotalis viridis), western plains garter snakes (Thamnophis radix), Texas horned lizards (Phrynosoma cornutum), and ornate box turtles (Terrapene ornata).