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Back to the Home Page thanks to Lesia Rehl |
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A Kid’s Guide to Living with Wildlife We encounter wildlife everyday in our neighborhood. From the fuzzy rabbit, to the graceful deer to the howling coyote, we must learn to respect them all and their homes. Here are a few simple rules to live by: Never approach wildlife. Never shout, throw rocks or chase animals or birds. It’s okay to look at a nest or burrow, but please don’t touch. Leave it as you found it. Keep your pets on a leash so they don’t chase the wild animals. If you find a baby, leave it alone. Its mother is probably close by waiting for you to leave. Each prairie dog family lives in a burrow, and they have lots of neighbors. All those burrows together form a prairie dog town. Do you play with the kids next door? Do your parents visit outside with your friends' parents? You live in a community with other people. A prairie dog town is the animal version of your community. If you could slither down a prairie dog burrow, you would find some rooms for sleeping, some rooms for storing food, and even a bathroom! You would also find a back door. If a predator comes in one entrance after them, the prairie dog family can escape out another hole. When you pass a prairie dog town, all those animals scurrying around probably make you think there must be billions of prairie dogs out there. Actually, there are only about 2 percent of the prairie dogs around that used to be here. That's how much prairie dog populations have shrunk since settlers came west. Prairie dog towns once covered much of eastern Colorado. Prairie dogs, however, ate grass that ranchers needed for their cows. The rodents also lived where farmers wanted to plant crops, so people killed lots of prairie dogs. Now, as cities along the Front Range grow, prairie dogs are being killed to make room for houses and businesses. What will hawks, owls, and coyotes eat if all the prairie dogs are gone?
Diet: Grass, flowering plants, shrubs, seeds. Habitat: Grasslands, pastures, vacant lots, undeveloped land. Where to watch: Open land of eastern Colorado west to the foothills. Color the prairie dog town map click here
Kid’s Local Events
Denver Museum of Nature and Science If you know of any additional links or programs available locally, please contact the webmaster, Ken Elliott at: elliottkc@earthlink.net and we will post the information here. Kid’s Wildlife Sites:
Animals/Wildlife Site
The ASPCA’s
Animaland
Colorado Division of
Wildlife’s For Kids
Defenders of
Wildlife’s Kid’s Planet
Denver Museum of
Nature and Science
The Denver Zoo’s Kid
Page
National Geographic
National Wildlife
Federation’s Ranger Rick’s Kid Zone
Nature and Wildlife
Field Guides
Ocean Journey
PBS’s Zoboomafoo
Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center In My Backyard – Kid’s Wildlife Encounters
Riddles:
Why are cards like wolves?
What do you get if you cross a worm and a fur coat?
When does a female deer need money?
Who settled in the West before anyone else?
Why do squirrels spend so much time in trees?
Where do mountains cook their food?
What do mountain sheep eat each day at noon?
What animals are the absolute coolest?
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Description:
Plump, tan body, short legs, round head, 
