Two women want to protect a prairie dog colony of about 800 animals from development off Route 66 near Yukon, Oklahoma.
The Yukon Progress newspaper reports that the colony at Sara Road is one of the last in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area.
Janet Combs and Kathy Crews hope someone buys the land so it’s kept as it is, with perhaps a viewing platform so visitors can watch the animal chirp and interact.
Crews said she often takes her grandchildren to a nearby parking lot so they can watch them.
A local TikTokker shot a brief video of the colony last year:
Interestingly, Google Maps actually labels the tract where the colony resides as “Prairie Dog Field.”
Crews said the option of relocating the animals is not a good one. The survival rate of prairie dogs after they’re moved is only about 10%, she said.
Prairie dogs are not endangered, so there is no federal protection for them from development.
A 20-year-old article in The Oklahoman indicates there have been other efforts to relocate other prairie dogs in the Yukon area.
A prairie dog town exists west of Seligman, Arizona, along Route 66, as well.
(Hat tip to Oklahoma Route 66 Association; image of a prairie dog by Paul Hudson via Flickr)