European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 22, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                National geographic society Barbara Moffet a pause to nibble on a Blade of grass at wildlife Refuge in Kansas spots of hair Dye Mark Prairie dogs coat for identification in a scientific shootout in a Small town the town want very big As far As Prairie dog towns go about it seemed Safe and built on an Sutof therway wildlife Refuge near Sterling in Central but one Day last Winter somebody ventured onto the Quivira National wildlife Refuge with a Shotgun and illegally killed about a third of the 75 Prairie the shooting almost ended a scientific research project As Zuleyma assistant professor at the University of Missouri at had been observing blackmailed Prairie dogs for two trying to determine Why some of the animals stay in their native area for life while some eventually strike out on their she had identified and marked almost every animal and was beginning to draw up behaviour profiles when she Learned of the after seriously considering a halt to the she decided to says Prairie dogs Are not very popular on around a common pastime on weekends is to go out with a Shotgun and shoot Prairie the general attitude is that they Are Prairie dogs have been pests since the old West ranchers say they move in on their land and take pushing cattle off valuable grazing exactly How much the two animals diets is not we get requests for help in eradication from every state that has Prairie said Clarence Faulkner of the fish and wildlife services animal damage control Well give a demonstration on treating bait with Poison or Well Send leaflets on Prairie dogs Page 10 the stars and stripes ranchers worry that the Burrows of Prairie dogs can trip cattle and but the Burrows also can be the tunnels help the soil hold retarding they also shelter other such As the burrowing owl and Blac footed this now considered the rarest mammal in the United once was Prairie dogs worst efforts to wipe out Prairie dogs have More successfully pushed the ferret out of its virtually eliminating this natural millions of Prairie dogs once coexisted with the Bison on the great Plains from Saskatchewan South to the Rio Lewis and Clark in 1804 reported the Phairy dog now known As the blackmailed Prairie dog in infinite As recently As 1902 a Colony in Texas was reported to cover Square Miles and House 400 million Ani since Prairie dog numbers have been reduced by More than 90 at one Point More than people cooperated to Poison millions of most surviving Prairie dogs now live on protected Only one of the four species the Utah Whitetail is considered even populations of the More common Blacktail Are you can have a town of Prairie dogs this year and it can be gone the lost to a new farm or Urban Halpin Prairie dogs Are found Only in North so if they disappear that it for the february 1981 Prairie dogs stories by Barbara Moffet National geographic news service John Hoogland has spent seven seasons spy ing on Prairie dogs and Hes brimming Over with gossip did you know that some female Prairie dogs Are promiscuous or that the average male Prairie dog has two or three females he Calls his own and that these seemingly congenial animals sometimes turn around and kill each possibly their own relatives unlike most these titbits Are based on thorough research thousands of hours spent watching at a 16acre blackmailed Prairie dog Colony at wind Cave National Park in South this is news that not everyone relates Hoogland because Many people dont even know the nature of the some think it s a people in the East dont know a Prairie dog from a said an assistant professor at Princeton once he explains that Prairie dogs Are actually squirrels relatives of the tree Squirrel and groundhog people tend to dismiss them As Mere to Hoogland himself haunt expected rodents to be so he knew before he began research that Prairie dogs Are among the most social living together by the thousands in colonies on the great Plains that can cover hundreds of their colonies known As towns Are extremely divided into wards and then into family units Call each coterie has a a few females and some he Learned that Prairie dogs constructed elaborate Burrows to live in Labyrinthine dwellings with a chamber for almost every using their paws and noses to pile up they add two Dom shaped doors to each one a bit higher than the to enhance a few minutes observation revealed Prairie dogs to be winsome spending their Days passively Munch ing on grass around their Burrows and chasing each other like sometimes they even a greeting that apparently is a sign of they exhibited a whole Range of from the so called bark they uttered when to the jump a two toned cry emitted with the head thrown Back and front paws in the they often seemed to jump Yip for no one usually followed by a response from another Prairie dog until there was a chorus of Hoogland even had a hint of Prairie dog hostility occasional Savage fighting and something called the anal in this which often occurs when a Prairie dog intrudes into a foreign the agitated animals Tail its anal glands inflame and its Teeth chatter after so Many seasons of observing a Colony of 200 each one marked with a dyed number for Ridenti Hoogland has found that Prairie dogs live by a Well defined social code he had not his re search is supported by the National geographic society and the National science he has for that they Are strongly looking out for their own rela Tives but apathetic about the Fate of the Prairie dogs in the nextdoor hours of recorded Friendly interactions such As playing and grooming each other versus unfriendly actions such As fighting and anal displays showed relatives to be helpful and kind toward each other and no relatives to be generally and Prairie dogs without relatives Are less Likely to sound an alarm Call when a predator is he Hoogland also found that the animals seem to avoid while All females stay for life in their native coterie almost All males leave the safety of the coterie for another one after their first this apparently the scientist so they can avoid mat ing with their if they Are not Prairie dogs Are definitely each male Hoogland studied mated with More than one of the females in his and 30 to 40 percent of the females mated with More than one this infidelity raises Hoogland such As when a female has gone out and mated with another of the Plains Why should her own male allow her Back in the coterie can he Tell his own offspring from those of another male Hoogland says Prairie dogs Are beginning to re mind him of another supposedly More advanced people like to think were but a lot of what we do is probably done by Many other animals we dont have the relevant data he heres a lowly rodent that is avoids incest and is finding out who is mating with whom Hast been unlike most Prairie dog mating takes place underground in the but such records Are Hoogland Points in drawing conclusions about incest and during the 15 to april 15 Breeding Hoog land and his assistants arrive in the Field about 7 before the animals get they quietly ascend Obser vation where they might spend a 12hour Day huddled in sleeping clutching binoculars and wait ing for a sign that the animals Are they watch for a male and female to go into a Burrow together and stay for More than two something that Doest occur outside of and they listen for another Cue a special Call that the male makes Only after to make sure their mating records Are Hoogland is having the babies blood samples were using blood samples like a lawyer would for paternity he most of the Sample an Al Zed so far by a new York Laboratory have verified the teams he just when he thought he had Prairie dogs figured Hoogland had an unconfirmed report that one of the animals had slipped into a Burrow and killed her own relatives the babies of her if this actually it would pull the Rug out from under my he Here Are these females that Are defend ing territory building nests together and eating together for 364 Days a and then a female goes off in the grass and her Mother or sister goes Down and kills her he is known to occur in Many including Prairie but the killing of relatives is until he Nas More Hoo glands not making any definite statements about what might be the Darker Side of the Prairie Range of blackmailed Prairie dogs Canada 1980 National geographic society Peter Strauss new creative Force in to by Jerry Buck associated press this is a this actor Peter Strauss takes a breath and the weariness shows on his handsome i came Home at 4 in the he says in los id shot the previous night for 18 from 2 in the afternoon until 8 in the spent the Day in Between in the editing and As i was driving Home i recognized the fact that my future wife was asleep and haunt seen me for two and i suddenly realized that i had to make it very Clear to her that this business is a it gets into your in not talking about the Gucci part of i mean the Joy of creating Peter Strauss has emerged As one of televisions new creative with a pervasive influence that few actors within the last year Hes won an emmy award As Best actor for his role in the Jericho mile and he tackled his first Angel on my his three hour a whale for the was on Abc earlier this in april he stars with Peter Otoole in the eight hour mini Senes that series is scheduled to begin the Day after his wedding to new York Model Shana it is to a whale for the kitting that Strauss has devoted body and he has been involved in every aspect of the from the script which went through 16 drafts and five writers to the to attempts to break Down a whales cries into it was a he theres a saying in this never set foot off the the minute youre on water you cant keep a camera its impossible to shoot from a everything keeps Chang ing the the the the water color and water we tangled with a contrary 44foot mechanical we had an actors we were in a isolated location in the taken from the Book by Farley tells of a whale that becomes trapped in a Pond by a Remote outpost fishing Village and Moats ill fated at tempts to Rescue the in the end the whale Dies from abuse by the Village people and from a pervasive influence few actors february 1981 Strauss says the biggest problem with the script was deciding which of Many stories to focus theres the sociological study of the the psychological study of mens actions and there is a revenge a Story of Man and his a Story of a troubled family coming to terms during a and its a picture about and their Beauty and their he in the end its a picture about a Man coming to grips with a different which even though its is still not that different from our Strauss and his own company started work on a whale for the killing about three years but the costs began to soar so High that Playboy productions was called in to provide deficit the budget finally swelled to an excess of in which was filmed largely in Israel often in Belo Sealevel temperatures of 135 degrees at the dead sea Strauss plays Eleazar Ben Ben Yair was the Leader of 960 jewish zealots who held out three years against roman legions from atop the Mountain Masada from 70 to 73 the besieged defenders ultimately killed themselves rather than sur Render to the romans and be sold into i did not play Eleazar As a grand he i tried if anything to work against the very just a Man who had a Way of leading his this is not a Cecil Demille biblical the Beauty of it is the screenplay Joel Oliansky its written in Ordinary but there Are extraordinary speeches when poetry is called i Otoole s last line when the troops come up and congratulate him on a remarkable Otoole Victory we have won a Rock in the Middle of a wasteland on the Edge of a poisoned that Beautiful Strauss says he is Uncertain what he will do i see televisions limitations and in he but later adds that he feels television offers greater opportunities than motion after Rich poor both he and Nick Nolte were swamped with movie Nolte used the Opportunity to become a film but Strauss elected to stay in television is like repertory he no movie studio in the world in one year would let me play the Leader of the a Man who tries to save a a runner in and a Guy who comes from the stars and stripes Page 11