Editing Prairie dog (section)

===Social organization and spacing===
[[File:Társas prérikutya 4.jpg|thumb|Prairie dog family]]

Prairie dogs are highly social animals. They live in large colonies or "towns", and collections of prairie dog families can span hundreds of acres. The prairie dog family groups are the most basic units of its society.<ref name="Hoogland 1995"/> Members of a family group inhabit the same territory.<ref name="Hoogland 2002"/> Family groups of black-tailed and Mexican prairie dogs are called "coteries", while "clans" describes family groups of white-tailed, Gunnison's, and Utah prairie dogs.<ref name="Hoogland 2002"/> Although these two family groups are similar, coteries tend to be more closely knit than clans.<ref name="Haynie 2002"/> Members of a family group interact through oral contact or "kissing" and grooming one another.<ref name="Chance 1976"/><ref name="Hoogland 1995"/> They do not perform these behaviors with prairie dogs from other family groups.<ref name="Hoogland 1995"/>

[[File:Kissing Prairie dog edit 3.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A pair of prairie dogs]]

A prairie dog town may contain 15–26 family groups,<ref name="Hoogland 1995"/> with subgroups within a town, called "wards", which are separated by a physical barrier. Family groups exist within these wards. Most prairie dog family groups are made up of one adult breeding male, two or three adult females, and one or two male offspring and one or two female offspring. Females remain in their natal groups for life, thus are the source of stability in the groups.<ref name="Hoogland 1995"/> Males leave their natal groups when they mature to find another family group to defend and breed in. Some family groups contain more breeding females than one male can control, so have more than one breeding adult male in them. Among these multiple-male groups, some may contain males that have friendly relationships, but the majority contain males that have largely antagonistic relationships. In the former, the males tend to be related, while in the latter, they tend not to be related. Two or three groups of females may be controlled by one male. However, among these female groups, no friendly relationships exist.<ref name="Hoogland 1995"/>
[[File:Prairie dog at the zoo.jpg|thumb|A prairie dog at a zoo.]]
The typical prairie dog territory takes up {{convert|0.05|-|1.01|hectare|abbr=on}}. Territories have well-established borders that coincide with physical barriers such as rocks and trees.<ref name="Hoogland 1995"/> The resident male of a territory defends it, and antagonistic behavior occurs between two males of different families to defend their territories. These interactions may happen 20 times per day and last five minutes. When two prairie dogs encounter each other at the edges of their territories, they stare, make bluff charges, flare their tails, chatter their teeth, and sniff each other's perianal scent glands. When fighting, prairie dogs bite, kick, and ram each other.<ref name="Hoogland 1995"/> If their competitor is around their size or smaller, the females participate in fighting. Otherwise, if a competitor is sighted, the females signal for the resident male.