Page "Prairie dog" Paragraph 25

A prairie dog town may contain 15-26 family groups.

There may also be subgroups within a town, called " wards ", which are separated by a physical barrier.

Family groups exist within these wards.

Most prairie dog family groups are made up of one adult breeding male, two to three adult females and one to two male offspring and one to two female offspring.

Females remain in their natal groups for life and are thus the source of stability in the groups.

Males leave their natal groups when they mature to find another family group to defend and breed in.

Some family groups contain more breeding females than one male can control, so have more than one breeding adult male in them.

Among these multiple-male groups, some may contain males that have friendly relationships, but the majority contain males that have largely antagonistic relationships.

In the former, the males tend to be related, while in the latter, they tend not to be related.

There may be two to three groups of females controlled by one male.

However, among these female groups, there are no friendly relations.