How has the drought affected prairie dogs? How far north and west does the Texas, Oklahoma drought go?

I hunted prairie dogs in the southern Texas Panhandle just prior to July 4. Numbers were down considerably in the same town we had hunted earlier in the year, and conditions were ghastly (bare ground, not a blade of green grass, playa lakes totally evaporated.)

I won't hunt again this year, due to the conditions. However, prairie dogs are great survivors and there will be plenty of "seed" population to repopulate quickly once conditions improve. I don't think there will be any long-term impact, but for the short term I'm leaving them alone.

I'm not hunting my normal Texas, New Mexico spots, but thinking of going further north. How far north?

Here ya go: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

This is a great website to fill you in on the current status of drought across the U.S. As you can see, most of Oklahoma and southern Kansas are in significant drought, but from there north things are in good shape. Central/Northern Kansas, NB, SD, ND, WY, MT, and eastern CO are all in pretty good shape moisture-wise.

We found plenty of them in Northern Colorado recently.

Thanks, teancum, appreciate the info.

Just got back from a praire dog hunt in western Nebraska and had a great time! They have had a lot of rain, so numbers were up.

There were also a lot of TX cattle up there. The local ranchers are saying that Texas won't have a cow on the range for a few years now.