Prairie dogs play an important role in grassland ecosystems, but outbreaks of sylvatic plague can threaten their populations and affect the wildlife that depends on them. In Casper, an upcoming presentation will give residents an opportunity to learn how researchers are investigating the factors that influence these outbreaks and how the findings could help improve wildlife management.
The Werner Wildlife Museum, part of Casper College, will host Joel Sorensen for a presentation titled “Studying Scale-Dependent Disease Dynamics in Prairie Dogs” on Wednesday, October 28. The program begins at 6 p.m. in the museum’s Africa-Arctic Room and is free and open to the public.
Sorensen is a master’s student in zoology and physiology at the University of Wyoming, where he works in the Barrile Lab under Dr. Gabe Barrile. His research examines sylvatic plague in black-tailed prairie dogs at three levels: individual animals, colonies, and entire grassland landscapes. By examining these scales together, researchers can better understand how conditions affecting individual animals and local populations may contribute to broader outbreaks.
Prairie dogs live in family groups known as coteries, which form larger colonies. Across the grasslands of the Western Great Plains, these colonies can form connected networks. Understanding how those networks are arranged and how closely colonies are connected may help researchers investigate how plague occurs and spreads across a landscape. READ MORE.