2B+Prairie+Dogs

**Prairie Dogs**

Abiotic Factors Temperate grasslands have some of the darkest, richest soils in the world. The summers are hot and the winters are cold - much colder than Santa Barbara! With cold winters, it’s surprising how hot the grassland summers can get! Sometimes the temperature is more than 100°F.

Biotic Factors Trees and large shrubs are rarely found in grassland areas. There are many species of grasses that live in this biome, including, purple needle grass, wild oats, foxtail, ryegrass, and buffalo grass. Also, with underground stems and buds, grasses are not easily destroyed by fire.

Threats The threats to the prairie dogs are the farmer’s shoot them to keep them off their land, humans shoot them for fun, snakes eat them to stay alive, coyotes to stay alive, hawks to feed their young , road kill on accident , mountain lion to feed their young and themselves

 Conservation Plan One idea for the conservation plan is to get all of the prairie dogs and relocate them in a place where they have plenty of food and some predators so they don’t get over populated. And also just let the prairie dogs live the way they are or to gather them and make houses for them. Or to spread a controlled disease to control their population so the farmers don’t have any on their land. or just let the farmers shoot them. These are just some of the many conservation plans.