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Scientist: Prairie Dogs Have Own Language
Newsday ^ | 12-03-04 | WestVirginiaRebel

Posted on 12/03/2004 8:42:37 PM PST by WestVirginiaRebel

ALBUQUERQUE, NM-Prairie dogs, those little pups popping in and out of holes on vacant lots and rural rangeland, are talking up a storm. They have different "words" for tall human in yellow shirt, short human in green shirt, coyote, deer, red-tailed hawk and many other creatures.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: animals; science
The most common thing they have been saying lately is, "No, we haven't found any extra votes for John Kerry, so leave us alone, Bill Richardson!"
1 posted on 12/03/2004 8:42:38 PM PST by WestVirginiaRebel
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To: WestVirginiaRebel

It'll be hard to keep 'em down on the prairie now.


2 posted on 12/03/2004 8:44:58 PM PST by KTpig
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To: WestVirginiaRebel

Last thing I heard a prairie dog say was:

".220 swift"


3 posted on 12/03/2004 8:48:13 PM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo
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To: WestVirginiaRebel

The most common thing they have been saying lately is, "No, we haven't found any extra votes for John Kerry, so leave us alone, Bill Richardson!"

I drive by a Prairie Dog Town every day. I know they are DUhs because the other day I actually heard one say as I drove by, "Frickin' Freeper!".


4 posted on 12/03/2004 8:48:28 PM PST by SolidRedState (Free Martha)
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To: WestVirginiaRebel

ancay eythay eakspay igpay atinLay?


5 posted on 12/03/2004 8:54:48 PM PST by Iam1ru1-2
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To: SolidRedState

Holy crud, that was funny. Thanks!

APf


6 posted on 12/03/2004 8:55:26 PM PST by APFel (Humanity has a poor track record of predicting its own future.)
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To: WestVirginiaRebel

"They can even coin new terms for things they've never seen before, independently coming up with the same calls or words, according to Con Slobodchikoff, a Northern Arizona University biology professor and prairie dog linguist."

This is a optomistic prairie dog linguist, as prairie dog liguists go that is.


7 posted on 12/03/2004 8:56:17 PM PST by KTpig
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To: KTpig

Paging Doctor Doolittle...


8 posted on 12/03/2004 8:58:53 PM PST by WestVirginiaRebel ("Nature abhors a moron."-H.L. Mencken)
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To: WestVirginiaRebel

How many millions did this cost us???


9 posted on 12/03/2004 8:59:27 PM PST by fish hawk
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To: fish hawk

It will work itself out. It seems they will be productive citizens very soon.


10 posted on 12/03/2004 9:03:52 PM PST by KTpig
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To: WestVirginiaRebel

DARN! We've been found out! :-)


11 posted on 12/03/2004 9:05:39 PM PST by PrairieDawg
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo
Last thing I heard a prairie dog say was: ".220 swift"

I say.....Hmmm. I realize Disney (along with National Geographic and The Smithsonian) is trying to turn the prairie rat into the next Bambi, but:

1. They are large rodents; just like rats.

2. They are cannibals.

3. They destroy farmers crops.

4. They destroy ranchers' grazing lands and create cattle-crippling holes.

5. They're plague-carrying vermin.

6. Hunting is more humane than poisoning, which is what farmers and ranchers do.

7. To stop the spread of plague, numerous prairie rat towns were poisoned by the state of Colorado a year or two back.

8. They breed like, well, rats and don't have enough natural enemies to keep the population in check.

Hunting them:

1. Decreases the threat of plague.

2. Provides needed population control.

3. Helps farmers and ranchers and keeps your friend's grocery bills down.

4. Decreases the expenses of the state which otherwise has to engage in wide-spread poisoning.

5. Generates revenue for businesses (ammo sales, etc.) and the state (hunting licenses).

6. Ammo and license sales fund state wildlife programs. No hunting, no wildlife management.

And Finally....the .220 swift is a great round...but I really like the good old .308 because of its down range wind bucking capability.

Shooting prarie rats is a fun way to get the left angry...

Go to the Nucla Colorado Rat shoot and you'll see them wailing and nashing their teeth over our shooting of these despicable little rodents.

12 posted on 12/03/2004 9:07:00 PM PST by Radioactive
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To: Radioactive

LOL, you know how to bring down a room, and I was waiting for the evolutionists. Not that there is anything wrong with that.


13 posted on 12/03/2004 9:09:25 PM PST by KTpig
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To: WestVirginiaRebel

Oh really?

I'll bet I know what word they probably use for humans with long, scoped objects lying flat on mats anywhere from 200-500 yards away...

Shee-yit!


14 posted on 12/03/2004 9:12:15 PM PST by WorkingClassFilth (From Ku Klux Klan to the modern era of the Koo Kleft Klan...the true RAT legacy.)
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To: WestVirginiaRebel
Here's the story, you linked to a page where you had to find the story.
15 posted on 12/03/2004 9:17:27 PM PST by perfect stranger ("Godel, Escher and Bach" if you've read the book give me your critique.)
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To: WestVirginiaRebel

Give them driver's licenses! Put them to work! Let them get social secuirty benefits! If we can understand them, so much the better! Start a cultural diversity clase to teach the rest of us to act like prairie dogs so we don't offend them with our human ways!


16 posted on 12/03/2004 9:24:38 PM PST by LachlanMinnesota
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To: Radioactive

My .308 is for the big rats, the ones with the antlers.

Swifty is for precision strikes.


17 posted on 12/03/2004 9:28:10 PM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo
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