Prairie dog extinction, combined with unusually heavy precipitation in 2018, resulted in dramatic ecosystem changes. The findings highlight the serious conservation challenges posed by boom-and-bust disease cycles in remaining Great Plains grasslands, according to the researchers. According to a study published in the journal Ecological Applications,’ when a sylvatic plague outbreak decimated black-tailed prairie dog populations in the Thunder Basin National Grassland in 2017, researchers saw an opportunity for a "natural experiment" to investigate the impact of the rodents’ extinction on the plants and other wildlife in that area of northeast Wyoming.
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