Lubbock Parks and Recreation is controlling the prairie dog population in city parks to avoid harm to humans and water and electrical lines.
“The prairie dog burrows are trip and fall hazards for people using the parks and the prairie dogs themselves actually chew up our irrigation lines and electrical lines underneath the ground in the parks,” Director of Lubbock Parks and Recreation Bridget Faulkenberry said.
Last year the city treated 4,200 prairie dog holes.
“Prairie dogs are extremely prolific and they breed very quickly and so they can overtake an area very quickly and that’s why we need to control them,” Faulkenberry said.
She said population control is getting increasingly difficult because prairie dogs don’t have boundaries.
“With the recent rains that we had last summer and even into the winter we expect to have more grass,” she said. “So we think the population will increase but we try to keep it under control,”
She said migratory owls burrowing in prairie dog holes are also a problem. Since owls are protected, a wildlife biologist has to make sure the burrow is clear before the city treats it.
“One thing that we have noticed that’s different from any other year is that the owls are starting to winter over here in Lubbock,” she said.
Prairie dogs also pose a health risk and warns parents and kids to avoid touching them.
“They do carry diseases that are transmissible to man, mainly plague, so it’s not a good idea to try to get too close to them,” Faulkenberry said.
