Black tailed groundhog skull specimen, University of Wyoming Library

The black tailed prairie dog mouse is a reptile of the family Muridae in the order Rodentia. The body length is about 30-40 centimeters, with a shoulder height of over 10 centimeters. The body is grown and plump, and the head is short and wide; The neck is thick and short, and the ears are short and small. The body hair is mainly gray brown in color; The abdomen is grayish yellow in color; The tail end is black. Life expectancy of 8 years. The black tailed marmot is distributed in the grasslands of central North America, extending northward to southern Canada; Mainly living on the edge of the Sonora Desert. Social animals, do not hibernate, are active during the day, are good at digging caves, and feed on herbaceous plants. When most of the group is foraging on the grassland, there is always one standing guard near the cave.