Prairie dog in prairie species such as the black-footed ferret, swift fox, golden eagle, red tailed hawk, American badger, coyote and ferruginous hawk. Other species, such as the golden-mantled ground squirrel, mountain plover, and the burrowing owl, also rely on prairie dog burrows for nesting areas. Even grazing species, such as plains bison, pronghorn, and mule deer have shown a proclivity for grazing on the same land used by prairie dogs. Nevertheless, prairie dogs are often identified as pests and exterminated from agricultural properties because they are capable of damaging crops, as they clear the immediate area around their burrows of most
Black-tailed prairie dog activities keep plant development in a suppressed vegetative state with higher nutritional qualities, herbivores, including red deer ("Cervus elaphus"), American bison, pronghorn ("Antilocapra americana"), and domestic cattle often prefer foraging in black-tailed prairie dog colonies. Animals that depend on herbaceous cover in sagebrush habitat, such as mule deer ("Odocoileus hemionus") and sage grouse ("Centrocercus" spp.), may be deterred by the decreased vegetative cover on black-tailed prairie dog colonies. For a list of vertebrate species associated with black-tailed prairie dog colonies, see. Biodiversity in shortgrass prairies may be at risk due to the reductions in distribution and occurrence of black-tailed prairie