Mortality
Major mortality factors include predation, disease, infanticide, habitat loss, poisoning, trapping, and shooting. Survival for the first year was 54% for females and less than 50% for males in Wind Cave National Park. Primary causes of death were predation and infanticide. Infanticide partially or totally eliminated 39% (361 individuals) of all litters. Lactating females were the most common killers. Mortality of young was highest due to heavy predation during the winter and early spring following birth. Mortality increases with dispersal from a colony or coterie.
Sylvatic plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, can quickly eliminate entire black-tailed prairie dog colonies. Once infected, death occurs within a few days. Black-tailed prairie dogs are also susceptible to diseases transmitted by introduced animals.
Read more about this topic: Black-tailed Prairie Dog
Famous quotes containing the word mortality:
“The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.”
—William Dean Howells (1837–1920)