Prairie dogs have large eyes, short tails and a brownish-tan pelage. Prairie dogs are very social animals. These towns are subdivided into wards that are arranged like counties within a state. Wards are further subdivided into distinct social units called coteries. A coterie usually consists of a single adult male, one to four adult females, and any offspring under two years of age.
Prairie dogs are strictly diurnal animals.
They are most active during the cool hours of the day, when they engage in social activities such as visiting and grooming each other as well as feeding on grasses and herbs. When prairie dogs are out, to see a sentry who perches on the volcano-like ring that surrounds the burrow. Female prairie dogs produce only one litter of approximately four to five young per year in March or April. The pups are born blind and hairless after a gestation period of 34 to 35 days. They do not make an appearance outside the burrow until they are about six weeks of age.