Data on Flea Parasitism and Annual Re-encounters of Utah Prairie Dogs at 5 colonies on the Awapa Plateau, Utah, USA, 2013-2016

Data on flea parasitism and annual re-encounters of Utah prairie dogs at 5 colonies on the Awapa Plateau, Utah, USA, June-August 2013-2016. Utah prairie dogs were live-trapped and sampled on 5 colonies along an elevation gradient from 2,645 m to 2,873 m. Upon first capture each year, we anesthetized each prairie dog and fleas on its body and combed the prairie dog as thoroughly as possible for 30 s to collect fleas. We recorded the age (juvenile/adult), sex, and mass (nearest 5 g) of each prairie dog and marked its ears and body with metal tags and passive integrated transponders, respectively, for permanent identification. We indexed each prairie dog's body condition as the ratio between its weight and hind-foot length (nearest 0.10 cm) (weight:foot). Prairie dogs were allowed to recover from anesthesia and released at their trapping locations. Precipitation data for individual prairie dog colonies each year (February through September) are from the Parameter-Elevation Relationships on Independent Slopes Model (Daly et al. 2008; http://www.prism.oregonstate.edu/).
The first set of data, Awapa UPD Fleas, includes data on the abundance of fleas on individual Utah prairie dogs. Each line of data is from an individual animal. Data include Utah prairie dog Age and Sex, prairie dog Condition, abundance of Fleas on the prairie dog, precipitation of the prior year (PriorPRISM), and precipitation of the current year (CurrentPRISM).
The second set of data, Awapa UPD Reencounter, includes data on annual reencounters of individual Utah prairie dogs. Each line of data is for an individual prairie dog in a given annual interval; an animal must have been captured at the start of an interval to be included in that interval (e.g., a prairie dog captured in 2013 but not captured in 2014 was included in the interval 2013–2014 but was not included in the interval 2014–2015). The response variable (Reencounter) was binomial (e.g., a prairie dog captured in 2013 and 2014 but not in 2015 received a response of 1 for the interval 2013–2014 and a value of 0 for the interval 2014–2015). Predictor variables included: PriorPRISM, CurrentPRISM, prairie dog Age and Sex, prairie dog Condition, and flea parasitism of the prior year (expressed as detection/non-detection of at least 1 flea on a prairie dog in the prior year = FleaPrev). Data also  include a information on trapping effort (i.e., number of trap days on a given colony) in the current year. 
Funding and logistical support were provided by the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS), Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and Colorado State University. This research was also supported by Grant/Cooperative Agreement Number G14AC00403 from the USGS and Grant number RC-2634, Department of Defense Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program. Fieldwork was completed by the USGS Fort Collins Science Center, and lab work and flea identifications were completed by the USGS National Wildlife Health Center.

Tags: biota, cynomys, flea, plague, prairie-dog, usgs-5dcf340ce4b06957976276a2, yersinia-pestis
Organization: Department of the Interior