Living with Wildlife
Living with Prairie Dogs
Prairie dogs are "barking" squirrels and are considered a keystone species because they provide habitat and food for over 120 different species. Prairie dog communities are valuable parts of local landscapes: they offer wildlife viewing and educational opportunities, and are important ecological and food sources for other species such as hawks, eagles and black-footed ferrets.
Prairie dog populations are generally doing quite well in Colorado. The biggest threat to prairie dog populations is habitat loss primarily due to development around population centers on the Front Range. New commercial and residential developments often displace prairie dogs, causing them to wander into areas that are inappropriate and disruptive. For landowners, the best control strategy includes irrigation and improved grazing rotation, but lethal removal is allowed as an option.
There are three species of prairie dog in Colorado: black-tailed, white-tailed, and Gunnisons prairie dog.
Sick Prairie Dogs
Plague, Tetanus and Tularemia
Prairie dogs host the kind of fleas that carry plague, and can become sick with Tularemia. Both illnesses can be passed to humans and other animals. Prairie dogs can carry a number of bacteria harmful to people or pets in their mouths (including tetanus) and bites can lead to serious infections in humans and animals.
Crossing Paths with a Sick or Injured Prairie Dog
If a prairie dog appears sick, don't approach it or try to move it. Contact a local animal control officer or pest control company to remove sick prairie dogs.
Prairie dogs can carry the plague but pose little to no risk to human health. To learn more visit the Disease Exposure page.
What to do if You or Your Pet is Bitten or Scratched?
Notify a physician or veterinarian immediately if bitten by a flea or a prairie dog, or at the onset of a fever and/or flu-like symptoms. Symptoms can appear up to 14 days after the last contact with prairie dogs.
Handling Prairie Dogs
If you must handle or be near prairie dogs, be sure to:
- Minimize direct handling.
- Wear protective clothing including long pants, long sleeve shirts, closed toe shoes and gloves.
- Use an insect repellent effective for fleas.
- Ensure that all prairie dogs are dusted with insecticide.
- Do not handle sick, lethargic, or dead (cause unknown) prairie dogs.
Tips for Living with Prairie Dogs
Prevent Infection
To prevent infection, avoid fleas by wearing long clothing and insect repellents. Do not handle sick or dead wildlife. When hunting, do not skin or consume animals that you find sick or dead. When field dressing carcasses, protect yourself from contact with tissues, fluids, and fleas.
Learn more
Exposure to Plague & Diseases
Contact your physician immediately if you feel ill with flu like symptoms following contact with wild mammals or fleas. The first confirmed human case of plague in Colorado occurred in 1940. Today, plague in humans is rare with an average of seven cases annually in the U.S. Antibiotics are effective for treatment of plague if administered in the early stages of the disease.
Find out moreProtecting Pets from Prairie Dogs
Use flea preventatives for your pets. For the safety of pets and wildlife, keep pets away while prairie dogs are in the yard to avoid encounters. If you are recreating near prairie dog colonies, do not allow pets to roam freely or consume wildlife carcasses.
Tips for keeping pets safeLiving with Prairie Dogs
Trapping, Relocating or Lethally Removing Prairie Dogs
Black-tailed prairie dogs are classified by CPW as "other small game," and by the Colorado Department of Agriculture as a "destructive rodent pest." Landowners, (or an agent of the landowner) may hunt, trap, or lethally remove prairie dogs when they are causing damage to crops, real or personal property or livestock.
Anyone can hunt prairie dogs recreationally, as long as they have taken hunter education and have a current small game license. The season for prairie dogs on public lands is from June 15 to the end of February the following year. The season for private lands is year round.
In addition, prairie dogs can be legally exterminated by a landowner as they are labeled a nuisance species in the state. This means that a landowner may lethally remove them from their property at any time without a license. That landowner can also request help in exterminating them on the property; anyone assisting the landowner(s) are considered an agent of the landowner and can legally shoot prairie dogs with or without a small game license.
In Colorado, it is unlawful to capture, transport and relocate black-tailed prairie dogs without a permit from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. There is a $40 fee for permits. No permit is required for prairie dogs that are euthanized on site and donated to a wildlife rehabilitation facility, but a report form must be submitted within 5 business days of the donation.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife does not itself directly participate in or provide on-site management of relocation processes but does issue required relocation permits. Most relocation efforts are coordinated by local governments or private/non-profit groups, with the actual capture, transport and relocation usually handled by contract with a private company or individual with skills in this area. All live traps (limited to cage or box traps) placed on public lands must be labeled permanently with the trapper’s name.
Dead Prairie Dog Donation
No permit is required to transport dead prairie dogs to a wildlife rehabilitator for donation. It is required, however, that a donation form be submitted to CPW within five business days after the donation.
These application forms are for black-tailed prairie dogs only, and do not apply to any other prairie dog species. Applicants are encouraged to contact their local Colorado Parks and Wildlife office and speak with the District Wildlife Manager who would handle the relocation approval well in advance of the desired project start date.
Application Requirements
- Applicants must have landowner permission (or permission of a landowner designee) to capture prairie dogs from the capture colony site, and must ensure that their trapping/relocation efforts do not, in any way, result in negative impacts to threatened or endangered species.
- The release site must meet minimum habitat suitability requirements. Factors that will be considered include site size, vegetation, slope and soil type. If the proposed release site is currently occupied by prairie dogs, additional factors need to be considered.
- Applicant is responsible for determining the existing zoning for the potential release site (residential, commercial, agricultural, etc).
- Any proposal to capture prairie dogs in one county and release them in a different county requires the approval of the receiving county board of commissioners.
- Applicants and permittees are required to comply with all related federal, state and local laws, rules, regulations, guidelines and protocols regarding trespass, wildlife, transport, pesticide application etc. related to this activity.
- Applicants must read and sign the “Risk Acknowledgement” (Application Part 2) with the application. Zoonotic Disease Management and Human Health Risks for this permit are fairly detailed, and require compliance with and consideration of a number of human health and wildlife handling guidelines.
- If relocations are proposed March through mid-June, considerations for dependent pups must be addressed.
Completed applications and forms should be sent to the local District Wildlife Manager. Refer to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Contact Us page to find the phone number for the office nearest you. It is recommended that completed applications be submitted at least 60 days prior to the desired effective date.
It is illegal in Colorado to capture, transport and deliver prairie dogs live to facilities that support the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) national black-footed ferret recovery program, or a licensed raptor rehabilitation program without a permit from Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The application process to relocate prairie dogs live to a raptor rehabilitator or the black footed ferret program is simplified, as approval of a suitable release site is not necessary. Potential applicants should contact their local District Wildlife Manager for details about the process and requirements.
How to Apply
The same application form is used for live relocation and transportation of live prairie dogs to a raptor rehabilitator or the Black Footed Ferret Program.
- Live Relocation: complete full application and submit with $40 permit fee.
- Transportation of live prairie dogs to raptor rehabilitator or the Black Footed Ferret Program: complete Parts 1 and 2 only of application and submit with $40 permit fee.