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Female adult American badger (Taxidea taxus) entering her home burrow with an unmarked adult Gunnison's prairie dog (Cynomys gunnisoni) that she has just captured at Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico, United States. In the background is the blind from which we recorded 93 of the badger's 100 predations from 5 June 2018 through 3 July 2018. Photo by Brittany Minnig.
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... 5 June 2018 through 7 July 2018, we recorded a total of 100 predations on prairie dogs by the single female adult badger that lived within our study area (Figs. 1, 2). Twenty-eight of these victims were marked, 69 were unmarked, and for 3 we could not verify the presence or absence of a Nyanzol marking. ...
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... Trophic effects; Figure 1). We predicted that population responses would be most dramatic and swift for the carnivores in our study system that relied on prairie dogs for a large proportion of their diet (e.g., ferruginous hawks [Buteo regalis], American badger, and swift fox ([Vulpes velox]; Kagel et al., 2020;Nicholson et al., 2006;Seery & Matiatos, 2000), with the magnitude of their declines increasing with their dietary reliance on prairie dogs. We anticipated bird communities, which respond more to vegetation structure, would differ most at 2 years post-plague. ...
... We also documented substantial declines in occupancy rates of mammalian predators after the plague epizootic, and species were affected in direct proportion to their dietary reliance on prairie dogs. In addition to the blackfooted ferret, American badgers have the greatest dietary reliance on prairie dogs (e.g., Kagel et al., 2020) and habitat specialization often manifests where the two species overlap (Grassel & Rachlow, 2018). On a landscape scale, badger occupancy in Thunder Basin was most strongly affected by proximity to prairie dog colonies prior to plague and declined to a near-zero level after plague. ...
... These results highlight the importance of prairie dogs for supporting the swift fox population in this landscape. Interestingly, we observed frequent diurnal behavior in both predator species, similar to Kagel et al. (2020), which highlights that studies using nocturnally-biased survey techniques may miss the importance of prairie dog resources, especially for swift foxes because this species is often surveyed using spotlighting. We found that coyote occurrence was influenced by prairie dog abundance, but to a lesser degree than badgers and swift fox, showing that both increased occurrence with increasing proximity to prairie dog colonies pre-plague, and a modest decline following the plague epizootic. ...
Habitat loss and changing climate have direct impacts on native species but can also interact with disease pathogens to influence wildlife communities. In the North American Great Plains, black‐tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) are a keystone species that create important grassland habitat for numerous species and serve as prey for predators, but lethal control driven by agricultural conflict has severely reduced their abundance. Novel disease dynamics caused by epizootic plague (Yersinia pestis) within prairie dog colonies have further reduced prairie dog abundances, in turn destabilizing associated wildlife communities. We capitalized on a natural experiment, collecting data on prairie dog distributions, vegetation structure, avian abundance, and mesocarnivore and ungulate occupancy before (2015–2017) and after (2018–2019) a plague event in northeastern Wyoming, USA. Plague decimated black‐tailed prairie dog populations in what was then the largest extant colony complex, reducing colony cover in the focal area from more than 10,000 ha to less than 50 ha. We documented dramatic declines in mesocarnivore occupancy and raptor abundance post‐plague, with probability of occupancy or abundance approaching zero in species that rely on prairie dogs for a high proportion of their diet (e.g., ferruginous hawk [Buteo regalis], American badger [Taxidea taxus], and swift fox [Vulpes velox]). Following the plague outbreak, abnormally high precipitation in 2018 hastened vegetation recovery from prairie dog disturbance on colonies in which constant herbivory had formerly maintained shortgrass structure necessary for certain colony‐associates. As a result, we observed large shifts in avian communities on former prairie dog colonies, including near‐disappearance of mountain plovers (Charadrius montanus) and increases in mid‐grass associated songbirds (e.g., lark bunting [Calamospiza melanocorys]). Our research highlights how precipitation can interact with disease‐induced loss of a keystone species to induce drastic and rapid shifts in wildlife communities. Although grassland taxa have co‐evolved with high spatiotemporal variation, fragmentation of the remaining North American rangelands paired with higher‐than‐historical variability in climate and disease dynamics are likely to destabilize these systems in the future.
... Wolves are unlikely alone in this capacity. Cougars (Puma concolor) and American badgers (Taxidea taxus) exhibit substantial individual variation in predation on ecosystem engineers (beavers and prairie dogs [Cynomys spp], respectively) that is not explained by prey availability or other ecological factors, suggesting personality-driven differences (Lowrey et al. 2016;Kagel et al. 2020). Only five killer whales (Orcinus orca) need to specialize in preying on sea otters (Enhydra lutris) to suppress local otter numbers and initiate effects on marine kelp forests via otterurchin-kelp trophic cascades (Williams et al. 2004). ...
... For instance, in 2017 we noticed increased activity by American badgers (Taxidea taxus) at two of the four flea-reduction sites and none of the non-treatment sites during the active season (unpublished data). American badgers and aerial predators have been observed to specialize on ground squirrels and prairie dogs, and one predator can decimate a single population (Hoogland et al., 2006;Kagel et al., 2020). On numerous occasions, we have observed badgers digging up and eating northern Idaho ground squirrels on our study sites. ...
Plague is a non-native disease in North America that reduces survival of many mammals. Previous studies have focused on epizootic plague which causes acute mortality events and dramatic declines in local abundance. We know much less about enzootic plague which causes less punctuated reductions in survival and abundance of infected populations. As a result, enzootic plague is much more difficult to detect because changes in population attributes are more subtle and Yersinia pestis prevalence is likely lower relative to epizootic plague outbreaks. The northern Idaho ground squirrel (Urocitellus brunneus) is a threatened species which coexists with Columbian ground squirrels (Urocitellus columbianus) and yellow-pine chipmunks (Neotamias amoenus) throughout their restricted distribution in central Idaho. Columbian ground squirrels and yellow-pine chipmunks are more abundant and widespread than northern Idaho ground squirrels and both are known hosts for plague. Hence, enzootic plague may be one cause of rarity for northern Idaho ground squirrels but its effect on this threatened species has not been evaluated. We conducted three controlled and randomized field experiments to examine the effects of plague in northern Idaho ground squirrels and the two coexisting species: 1) a plague vaccine experiment, 2) a paired flea-reduction experiment, and 3) a non-paired flea-reduction experiment. For experiment 1, we hypothesized that if enzootic plague is present, vaccinated animals would have higher survival. Furthermore, Experiments 2 and 3 tested the prediction that untreated, control animals should have lower survival than those in areas where fleas are experimentally removed or reduced because fleas are the main vector for plague. In the plague vaccine experiment, vaccinated chipmunks had 4.65% higher apparent survival compared to chipmunks that received a placebo for intervals when the vaccine is believed to be effective. Apparent annual survival increased for all three species on experimental flea-reduction plots compared to non-treated plots for the paired experiment but results were mixed for the non-paired experiment. Taken together, our results suggest that enzootic plague is present and negatively impacting survival of northern Idaho ground squirrels and two coexisting species.
