Did ranchers create the prairie dog over population?
While stagerod has made a couple of good points, he’s talking about natural tall grass prairies. Grazing doesn’t significantly shorten what we called “buffalo grass.” I grew up on natural short grass prairie. The unplowed pastures are not significantly different now than they were 150 years ago. The plowed prairie has been nudged toward mono-culture, which is the problem Stagerod is highlighting. Aside from that caveat, he and jack both gave sound answers: eliminating the predators was largely responsible for the increase in prey.
