{"id":144303,"date":"2025-05-16T04:37:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T09:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=144303"},"modified":"2025-05-16T15:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T20:29:09","slug":"young-black-tailed-prairie-dog-with-parent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/05\/16\/young-black-tailed-prairie-dog-with-parent\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Black-tailed Prairie Dog With Parent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m back from Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, where I was thrilled to photograph a young Black-tailed Prairie Dog at a burrow with an adult.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-144302 size-full\" title=\"Black-tailed Prairie Dog and baby at their burrow, Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, Comanche County, Oklahoma\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-tailed-prairie-dogs-WMNWR-mia-mcpherson-6260.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-tailed-prairie-dogs-WMNWR-mia-mcpherson-6260.jpg\" alt=\"Black-tailed Prairie Dog and baby at their burrow, Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, Comanche County, Oklahoma\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20643%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-tailed-prairie-dogs-WMNWR-mia-mcpherson-6260-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-tailed-prairie-dogs-WMNWR-mia-mcpherson-6260-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-tailed-prairie-dogs-WMNWR-mia-mcpherson-6260-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-tailed-prairie-dogs-WMNWR-mia-mcpherson-6260-600x429.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-tailed-prairie-dogs-WMNWR-mia-mcpherson-6260-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-tailed-prairie-dogs-WMNWR-mia-mcpherson-6260.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Black-tailed Prairie Dog and baby at their burrow \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f14, 1\/800, ISO 800, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve photographed White-tailed Prairie Dogs before, but these Black-tailed Prairie Dogs were photographic &#8220;lifers&#8221; for me. That means I\u2019d seen them before but had never photographed them.<\/p>\n<p>There were several baby Black-tailed Prairie Dogs in the prairie dog towns I saw on the mixed grass prairies of the refuge.<\/p>\n<p>Trying to get a good angle of light was a challenge, and so was getting photos of the young prairie dogs interacting with the adults or their siblings.<\/p>\n<p>It was amazing to be able to photograph the prairie dogs with spring wildflowers blooming all around them.<\/p>\n<p>In the photo above, the baby Black-tailed Prairie Dog was calling out as the parent listened.<\/p>\n<p>I have thousands of photos to go through in the next few days, and I have several more &#8220;lifers&#8221; I want to share. It was a very productive trip to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fws.gov\/refuge\/wichita-mountains\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge<\/span><\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>The scenery, the animals, and the birds were enchanting!<\/p>\n<p>Life is good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>I will add a gallery for Black-tailed Prairie Dog photos soon, in the meantime you can see more of my mammal photos <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/mammals\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m back from Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, where I was thrilled to photograph a young Black-tailed Prairie Dog at a burrow with an adult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":144302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16437,16439,16438],"tags":[4004,5772,16440,4054,16441,1631,5071,4067,16442,14000,9005,4947,5697,165,4307,4193],"class_list":["post-144303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-black-tailed-prairie-dogs","category-comanche-county","category-wichita-mountains-wildlife-refuge","tag-adult","tag-baby","tag-black-tailed-prairie-dog","tag-burrow","tag-cynomys-ludovicianus","tag-ground-squirrel","tag-ground-squirrels","tag-immature","tag-mixed-grass-prairie","tag-parent","tag-prairie-dog","tag-prairie-dogs","tag-rodents","tag-spring","tag-wildflowers","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-tailed-prairie-dogs-WMNWR-mia-mcpherson-6260.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-Bxt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":147569,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/05\/28\/black-tailed-prairie-dogs-of-wichita-mountains-national-wildlife-refuge\/","url_meta":{"origin":144303,"position":0},"title":"Black-tailed Prairie Dogs Of Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been wanting to share more photos of the Black-tailed Prairie Dogs that I took at Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge earlier this month.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Black-tailed Prairie Dogs&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Black-tailed Prairie Dogs","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/black-tailed-prairie-dogs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-tailed Prairie Dog family at their burrow, Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, Comanche County, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-tailed-prairie-dog-wichita-mountains-nwr-mia-mcpherson-6366.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-tailed-prairie-dog-wichita-mountains-nwr-mia-mcpherson-6366.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-tailed-prairie-dog-wichita-mountains-nwr-mia-mcpherson-6366.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-tailed-prairie-dog-wichita-mountains-nwr-mia-mcpherson-6366.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":145882,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/05\/22\/male-prairie-lizard-at-wichita-mountains-nwr\/","url_meta":{"origin":144303,"position":1},"title":"Male Prairie Lizard at Wichita Mountains NWR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A quick share this morning of a male Prairie Lizard I photographed on a boulder at a campsite at Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge last week.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Comanche County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Comanche County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/oklahoma\/comanche-county\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Prairie Lizard at a campsite in Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, Comanche County, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/prairie-lizard-male-wichita-mountains-nwr-mia-mcpherson-6545.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/prairie-lizard-male-wichita-mountains-nwr-mia-mcpherson-6545.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/prairie-lizard-male-wichita-mountains-nwr-mia-mcpherson-6545.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/prairie-lizard-male-wichita-mountains-nwr-mia-mcpherson-6545.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":138579,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/01\/08\/oklahoma-tallgrass-prairie-white-tailed-deer-buck\/","url_meta":{"origin":144303,"position":2},"title":"Oklahoma Tallgrass Prairie White-tailed Deer Buck","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"On my first visit to Oklahoma's Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, I saw and photographed quite a few White-tailed Deer, including this buck.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/oklahoma\/joseph-h-williams-tallgrass-prairie-preserve\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White-tailed Deer buck near a Cross Timbers forest edge, Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, Osage County, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/white-tailed-deer-tallgrass-prairie-mia-mcpherson-2325.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/white-tailed-deer-tallgrass-prairie-mia-mcpherson-2325.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/white-tailed-deer-tallgrass-prairie-mia-mcpherson-2325.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/white-tailed-deer-tallgrass-prairie-mia-mcpherson-2325.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":139266,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/02\/05\/white-tailed-deer-doe-stink-eye\/","url_meta":{"origin":144303,"position":3},"title":"White-tailed Deer Doe Stink Eye","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Some photos I share because they make me laugh, and lately, I've needed to laugh a lot. This White-tailed Deer doe giving me the stink eye does just that.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/oklahoma\/joseph-h-williams-tallgrass-prairie-preserve\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White-tailed Deer doe stink eye at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, Osage County, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/white-tailed-deer-doe-funny-tallgrass-prairie-mia-mcpherson-3213.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/white-tailed-deer-doe-funny-tallgrass-prairie-mia-mcpherson-3213.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/white-tailed-deer-doe-funny-tallgrass-prairie-mia-mcpherson-3213.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/white-tailed-deer-doe-funny-tallgrass-prairie-mia-mcpherson-3213.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21140,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/04\/01\/a-white-tailed-prairie-dog-in-golden-evening-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":144303,"position":4},"title":"White-tailed Prairie Dog in golden evening light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The White-tailed Prairie Dogs I saw and photographed last week in Wayne County, Utah seemed more active in the evening than mornings.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Utah&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Utah","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White-tailed Prairie Dog eating, Wayne County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/white-tailed-prairie-dog-eating-mia-mcpherson-7219.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/white-tailed-prairie-dog-eating-mia-mcpherson-7219.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/white-tailed-prairie-dog-eating-mia-mcpherson-7219.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/white-tailed-prairie-dog-eating-mia-mcpherson-7219.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":81345,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/03\/13\/white-tailed-prairie-dog-at-sunset\/","url_meta":{"origin":144303,"position":5},"title":"White-tailed Prairie Dog At Sunset","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"March means spring to me and there are signs of spring that I look for. The first of year sighting of a White-tailed Prairie Dog is a sign of spring for me.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Utah&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Utah","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White-tailed Prairie Dog at sunset, Wayne County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/white-tailed-prairie-dog-at-sunset-mia-mcpherson-7290.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/white-tailed-prairie-dog-at-sunset-mia-mcpherson-7290.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/white-tailed-prairie-dog-at-sunset-mia-mcpherson-7290.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/white-tailed-prairie-dog-at-sunset-mia-mcpherson-7290.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}