ABOVEGROUND COUNTS OF BLACK-TAILED PRAIRIE DOGS - TEMPORAL NATURE ANDRELATIONSHIP TO BURROW ENTRANCE DENSITY

Black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colonies are important to many vertebrate populations in the shortgrass prairie ecosystem. B ecause it is often desirable to assess black-tailed prairie dog popula tions, and indirect methods generally are more economical than direct counts, we tested whether aboveground counts of black-tailed prairie d ogs were related to burrow entrance densities. Higher densities of bur row entrances have been assumed to reflect higher prairie dog densitie s. We determined if maximum aboveground counts of black-tailed prairie dogs differed temporally in morning and evening in southwestern Kansa s, compared maximum aboveground count data with burrow entrance densit ies, and evaluated the effect of juvenile prairie dog emergence on the temporal nature of morning and evening maximum above-ground counts. A verage maximum aboveground counts varied temporally in the morning (P = 0.05) and evening (P = 0.03) but not in the morning with the emergen ce of juvenile prairie dogs (P = 0.23). Maximum counts were higher in the evening (P < 0.001), and differed among low, medium, or high burro w entrance density areas (P = 0.02), but not linearly.