Prairie dog itself more noticeable to the predator. Predators, though, seem to have difficulty determining which prairie dog is making the call due to its "ventriloquistic" nature. Perhaps the most striking of prairie dog communications is the territorial call or "jump-yip" display of the black-tailed prairie dog. A black-tailed prairie dog will stretch the length of its body vertically and throw its forefeet into the air while making a call. A jump-yip from one prairie dog causes others nearby to do the same. Ecologists consider this rodent to be a keystone species. They are an important prey species, being the primary diet
Utah prairie dog consume flowers in shrubs. Utah prairie dogs choose only few species of grasses only that are native to the soil. Utah prairie dog shows polyandry behavior, and lays only one litter per year, which generally consists of 1 to 8 litter size. The breeding occurs generally from mid-March through early April. They build extensive "towns" of underground tunnels and chambers, each town composed of a population of members of an extended prairie dog family group called “clan”, and they forage from dawn to dusk. The species appears in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, with a status of Endangered,