. Distribution of mammals in Colorado. Mammals. 1972 ARMSTRONG: COLORADAN MAMMALS 135 Cynomys ludovicianus Black-tailed Prairie Dog Cynomys ludovicianus is a mammal of the Great Plains. In Colorado, the species occu- pies areas of short- and mixed-grass prairie, and occurs throughout the eastern part of the state. Only locally does the species find access to grasslands of the foothills. The highest locality of record is Conifer, on Turkey Creek in Jefferson County, 7300 feet. More typically the upper limit is about 6000 feet. Because of their conspicuous "towns" and their obvious eff
. Distribution of mammals in Colorado. Mammals. 1972 ARMSTRONG: COLORADAN MAMMALS 135 Cynomys ludovicianus Black-tailed Prairie Dog Cynomys ludovicianus is a mammal of the Great Plains. In Colorado, the species occu- pies areas of short- and mixed-grass prairie, and occurs throughout the eastern part of the state. Only locally does the species find access to grasslands of the foothills. The highest locality of record is Conifer, on Turkey Creek in Jefferson County, 7300 feet. More typically the upper limit is about 6000 feet. Because of their conspicuous "towns" and their obvious effects on the grassland vegeta- tion, prairie dogs long have been the object of stringent control efforts. Early in the pres- ent century, it was estimated that two per cent of the area of eastern Colorado was occupied by prairie dog towns, a loss of some 412 square miles of rangeland (Payne, 1903; S. A. John- son, 1912). The Office of the State Entomolo- gist was charged with responsibility for pest control under the so-called "Pest Inspection Act" of 1911. For reports of the work of this agency in the control of prairie dogs, the in- terested reader is directed to the Annual Re- ports and Circulars of the State Entomologist, beginning in 1912. Burnett (1913, 1915) pre- sented detailed notes on the distribution of Coloradan prairie dogs. For details of natural history of species of Cynomys in Colorado, see the extensive ac- counts in Lechleitner (1969). An excellent study of prairie dogs and their relationship to range ecology was presented by Koford (1958). Parts of that study were conducted in north-central Colorado. Scheffer (1947) com- mented briefly on the autecology of C. ludo- vicianus and C. gunnisoni. Tileston and Lech- leitner (1966) compared C. ludovicianus and C. leucurus. Waring (1966b, 1970) reported comparative studies of alarm behavior and vocal communication of Coloradan species of Cynomys. Nadler and Harris (1967) described the karyotype of C. ludovic
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