Frequency of Alarm Barks in Two Black-Tailed Prairie Dog Towns
The frequency of alarm barks of prairie dogs was found to increase as the distance from an observer to the prairie dog decreased. This orderly relationship occurred in both a town heavily visited by tourists and in an isolated town. However, the frequency of barking, the distance at which barking began, and the distance between the observer and the prairie dog before the prairie dog retreated into its burrow were all greater for the prairie dogs in the isolated town.