Transcript:

Prairie Dogs MateHere's a program from our archives.Underneath America's great plains region this week, things are in a bit of an uproar. You see, it's prairie dog mating season. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.Scientists know surprisingly little about the prairie dog's breeding habits, because most of the action takes place in underground burrows. But one thing they do know for sure is that during mating season, you'll hear quite a bit of this sound.ambience: prairie dog jump-yips Loughry: What we're hearing are the jump-yip vocalizations of an adult black-tailed prairie dog. (A 53) Jump-yipping is performed by jumping from a position where they have all four feet on the ground to a position where they just have their hind legs on the ground, they've thrown their upper body up into the air.James Loughry is an animal behaviorist. He tells us that jump-yipping and mating can go hand in hand.Loughry: Males tend to do a lot of jump-yipping during the breeding season, and the reason for that is that during the breeding season, males are involved in a lot of territorial defense, and within their territories they have 1, 2, 3, or 4 females, and they're defending that area against any intruding males. During these territorial disputes, males tend to do a lot of jump-yipping.The male lives with his several females in a group called a coterie. When the mothers give birth, their offspring will also stay with the group. And that, of course, could give rise to inbreeding. Loughry: John Hoogland at the University of Maryland has shown that adult males tend to move out of the coterie after they're about two years, and this seems to be because their daughters are becoming reproductively mature. Their daughters remain within the territory, and they move on, and that seems to be to avoid in-breeding.We've been listening to a program from our archives. If you want to hear more, check out our podcast. I'm Jim Metzner.