When the phrase “field dog” is mentioned, an image of anyone, but not a mammal, a rodent, a sort of ground squirrel, appears in front of my eyes. These mammals got their name for the sharp barking sounds with which they communicate with each other. It is believed that their language is almost as complex as human - it contains many combinations with which they communicate with each other, i.e. convey information to their own kind and are even able to describe the events that are occurring. Let’s talk about how field dogs look and what kind of lifestyle they lead.
Appearance
As mentioned above, the field dog is a rodent that lives in North America, Mexico and Canada.
Outwardly, the dogs resemble marmots, but somewhat smaller - the body length reaches 40 cm, and the weight is up to 1.5 kg. The front legs of the animal are “equipped” with powerful claws, thanks to which they easily tear even hard ground. The back is covered with yellowish-gray hair, the stomach is somewhat lighter. Paw pads are also covered with wool. They have a fluffy tail up to 11 cm long.
Lifestyle
Field dogs are social animals. Their colonies can number up to a thousand individuals. At the same time, each of the animals has its own responsibilities, which it clearly observes - they have sentries, builders, educators, and defenders. But at the same time, their habitation is much similar to the way of life of a person - each family of these rodents has its own territory, the borders of which are not violated by other members of the community, i.e., we can say that, like people, field dogs after performing their public functions retired to rest in their homes, having separate rooms: kitchen, nursery, bedrooms. These animals lead a daily life, from August to February hibernate.
A family can count up to 20 individuals, the main one of which is a male. The remaining members of the family are females with cubs.
For the construction of their "cities" field dogs choose desert or steppe territories, open meadows and prairies. On one hectare can live up to several thousand of these animals.
Human interaction
Field dog is a herbivore capable of causing irreparable damage to agriculture. They were also disliked because they completely dig pastures with their burrows, domestic horses and cows are often injured, getting their feet in their burrows. That is why local farmers are struggling with them in every possible way. This struggle has led to the fact that the population of field dogs has not only declined significantly - the species is on the verge of extinction.
The other side of this interaction was the fact that these rodents began to be bred as pets along with cats and dogs. People realized that these are very intelligent animals, strongly attached to humans. If you grow them up with young animals, they will never even try to escape into the wild. But the maintenance of their home is associated with certain difficulties - they are very curious, therefore, they need constant supervision, since because of this character trait they can easily harm both themselves and the environment. In addition, they are cunning thieves who love to drag trophies received into their nest.
Rodent Protection Methods
As we said above, one animal living at your place is a cute, funny creature. But imagine a situation where you have thousands of them. At such a moment, you involuntarily think about how to deal with field dogs. A feature of the existence of these animals is that sentinels standing around the perimeter of their possessions will not be seduced by any treats or decoys if it is located outside the borders of their “city”. That is why, before getting rid of field dogs, you need to clearly establish the boundaries of their residence.
There are two ways to fight a rodent:
The first is much more gentle, it is safe both for humans and for the rodents themselves. Modern repellers emit ultrasonic signals that make animals leave their favorite places.
It would seem that this is an ideal way to fight rodents, but it has one significant drawback - the high cost of the device. And if you take into account that one device has its own radius of action, then a large number of such devices may be required for one section. And replacing the batteries themselves is not cheap.
That is why many farmers use more radical methods and use “heavy artillery” - chemicals, forgetting that field dogs are not ordinary mice, but much more intelligent animals. It is not enough just to decompose the poisoned bait and calm down on this. Chemical substances must be sprayed over meadows and added to water. Fighting them in this way can be exhausting. We said above how many individuals one colony of these rodents can have, and it is clear that it is simply impossible to poison them all. More and more animals come to the place of the dead. We can say that such a fight does more harm than good - it’s quite difficult to get rid of dogs in a particular area, and it affects the total number of animals very strongly.
Field dogs in Russia
At one time, the Internet literally exploded from reports that Russian residents increasingly began to see field dogs in the country, but now we can say with confidence that this was an erroneous opinion. These rodents are not able to survive even in the central zone of Russia, not like in Siberia. For the dogs they took water voles and hamsters, which also cause irreparable harm to agriculture, but have nothing to do with them. At the moment, the true culprits are found, and the dogs are completely rehabilitated.
Interesting Facts
- The family of field dogs is called cotories.
- Members of the same family are very fond of kisses and affection - they often touch each other with their muzzles, opening their mouths. The true reasons for this behavior have not been identified.
- Field dogs can kill not only other representatives of the rodent squad, but also their relatives who are not members of their colony and who dare to encroach on their territory. Moreover, they are herbivores and were not seen in cannibalism.
- There is a type of field dogs, which not only do not hibernate, but also can move freely in the snow - black-tailed field dog.
- Newborn babies are looked after by all family members.