On September 7, 1804, in what is now Nebraska, William Clark wrote of discovering a
". . . Village of Small animals that burrow in the [ground] . . . the Village of those animals . . . Contains great numbers of holes on the top of which those little animals Set erect makes a Whistleing noise and when allarmed step into their hole. Those Animals are about the Size of a Small Squ[ir]rel Shorter (or longer) & thicker, the head much resembling a Squirel in every respect, except the ears which is Shorter, . . ."
This was the first time the expedition had encountered the little, rodent-like animals known by the French trappers and traders as "petits chiens," which in English means "little dogs." Prairie dogs communicate with each other in a series of bark-like calls (hence their name) and whistles. When the expedition came across one of their villages, prairie dogs were still unknown to science; Lewis and Clark gave the animal its first formal description. Clark's comparison of the animals to squirrels was quite accurate — prairie dogs are actually members of the squirrel family. Members of the expedition attempted to dig out a prairie dog to send back to Jefferson, but soon found that due to the extensive network of deep tunnels in the prairie dog village that they were getting nowhere. Finally, they poured five barrels of water into one of the tunnels, causing a prairie dog to run out and allowing it to be caught.
In the early 1800s, there were billions of prairie dogs across the country. Today, their population has dropped by 98 percent, and some species of prairie dogs are threatened or endangered. In some states, owning prairie dogs as pets has become popular, although in many states that practice is still illegal. In June of 2003, an outbreak of a disease called monkeypox caught by humans from certain pet rodents, possibly including prairie dogs, caused the Center for Disease Control to place a temporary embargo on the sale of prairie dogs as pets.
