Many pups and some adults are lost to predators. While small, prairie dogs are fair game for rattlesnakes and burrowing owls. Hawks, like the eagles, ambush pups from the sky. Patrolling coyotes are quick to sense the pups’ hesitation and to capitalize on the uncertainty. Badgers excavate with astounding speed; bobcats rush from concealment of any nearby cover. And in some places the most dreaded predator of all is the black-footed ferret, which enters the burrow itself to surprise and trap its prey. But eradication programs against the prairie dog have made the ferret nearly extinct; none has been seen at Devils Tower since the late 1800s. Some of the other predators of the prairie dog also have been nearly eliminated by man. And with the loss of natural predators, prairie dog populations flourish rapidly. Unless these predators are allowed to make a comeback, prairie dog control programs will be inevitable. [Illustration: The black-footed ferret, a large weasel, makes its home in prairie dog towns, but it is extremely rare.] [Illustration: The coyote frequently prowls prairie dog towns in the early morning and evening.] [Illustration: The bullsnake hangs around burrows to prey on pups and other small rodents, killing them by constriction.] [Illustration: The prairie falcon nests on the Tower and occasionally feeds on residents of the prairie dog town.] [Illustration: The burrowing owl often nests in old burrows and sometimes preys on pups. Prairie dogs eat owl eggs and young.] [Illustration: The badger is short, broad, and a formidable digger. It concentrates its preying on new, one-entrance burrows.] Should the individual invited to mouth contact not reciprocate, an immediate challenge is made. Apparently, mouth contact is the only positive means of identification available to prairie dogs, and any animal refusing it is immediately deemed a trespasser and aggressively evicted. The wild chase that ensues, accompanied by indignant calling and fierce chattering of teeth, sometimes leads the righteous landowner deep inside its neighbor’s territory. The roles abruptly reverse and, after a moment of mutual realization, the pursuer suddenly becomes the pursued. In the glare of the early evening sun it is difficult to distinguish the individual prairie dogs as they go about their various activities. A single warning call, however, and the town instantly sprouts battalions of erect postures. For a moment, each motionless, backlit figure shines its sun-haloed position. All the disparate activities of the scattered animals become instantaneously fused to a single purpose: identifying the danger.