Each month, we get to know one of the state’s many wonderful and quirky critters.Editors’ note: An expanded version of this story was published on October 3, 2024. Latin name: Cynomys ludovicianusSize: 1 to 3 poundsTexas habitat: The Panhandle and West TexasMornings are busy in the black-tailed prairie dog colony in Brewster County’s Marathon Grasslands Preserve, about fifty miles north of Big Bend National Park. The plump rodents scamper from burrow to burrow, chirping and chattering and touching noses. “They’re a neat, charismatic animal,” says Dan Snodgrass, director of protection and stewardship for the Nature Conservancy in Texas, which owns the 2,701-acre site. But their sparkling personalities haven’t prevented a precipitous population decline. Black-tailed prairie dogs, the most common of the five species of prairie dogs…
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