Editing Prairie dog (section)

===Reproduction and parenting===
[[File:Präriehund P1010308.JPG|thumb|Female with juvenile]]

Prairie dog copulation occurs in the burrows, which reduces the risk of interruption by a competing male. They are also at less risk of predation. Behaviors that signal that a female is in [[estrus]] include underground consorting, self-licking of genitals, dust-bathing, and late entrances into the burrow at night.<ref name="Hoogland 1998"/> The licking of genitals may protect against sexually transmitted diseases and genital infections,<ref name="Hoogland 1998"/> while dust-bathing may protect against fleas and other parasites. Prairie dogs also have a [[mating call]] which consists of up to 25 barks with a 3- to 15-second pause between each one.<ref name="Hoogland 1998"/> Females may try to increase their reproduction success by mating with males outside their family groups. When copulation is over, the male is no longer interested in the female sexually, but will prevent other males from mating with her by inserting [[Mating plug|copulatory plugs]].<ref name="Hoogland 1998"/>

[[File:Juvenile black-tailed prairie dogs.jpg|thumb|Juvenile prairie dogs]]

For black-tailed prairie dogs, the resident male of the family group fathers all the offspring.<ref name=r1/> Multiple paternity in litters seems to be more common in Utah and Gunnison's prairie dogs.<ref name="Haynie 2002"/> Mother prairie dogs do most of the care for the young. In addition to nursing the young, the mother also defends the nursery chamber and collects grass for the nest. Males play their part by defending the territories and maintaining the burrows.<ref name="Hoogland 1995"/> The young spend their first six weeks below the ground being nursed.<ref name="Chance 1976"/> They are then weaned and begin to surface from the burrow. By five months, they are fully grown.<ref name="Chance 1976"/> The subject of cooperative breeding in prairie dogs has been debated among biologists. Some argue prairie dogs will defend and feed young that are not theirs,<ref name=r2/> and young seemingly sleep in a nursery chamber with other mothers; since most nursing occurs at night, this may be a case of communal nursing.<ref name="Hoogland 1995"/> In the case of the latter, others suggest communal nursing occurs only when mothers mistake another female's young for their own.
[[Infanticide (zoology)|Infanticide]] is known to occur in prairie dogs. Males that take over a family group will kill the offspring of the previous male.<ref name="Hoogland 1995"/> This causes the mother to go into estrus sooner.<ref name="Hoogland 1995"/> However, most infanticide is done by close relatives.<ref name="Hoogland 1995"/> Lactating females will kill the offspring of a related female both to decrease competition for the female's offspring and for increased foraging area due to a decrease in territorial defense by the victimized mother. Supporters of the theory that prairie dogs are communal breeders state that another reason for this type of infanticide is so that the female can get a possible helper. With their own offspring gone, the victimized mother may help raise the young of other females.