These animals having a party look like they’d make cute pets. They’re prairie dogs, who dig “burrows,” or tunnels, in the flat grassy fields. The tunnels can be more than 30 feet long, and connect to make whole underground “towns.” The biggest known town stretched for 25,000 square miles in Texas, and was home to about 400 million prairie dogs — more than the number of people in the U.S.!
Wee ones: How many prairie dogs can you count in the picture?
Little kids: If you’re the 6th prairie dog to show up for cake, how many showed up before you? Bonus: If there are just 13 cake pieces and each of the 6 prairie dogs gets 1, how many more dogs can get a piece after that?
Big kids: If a prairie dog town has 42 dogs the first day, 53 the next day, and 64 the day after that, what number do you guess comes next? Bonus: How many more prairie dogs were in that 400-million-dog town than the 320 million people in America?
Answers:
Wee ones: 2 prairie dogs.
Little kids: 5 prairie dogs. Bonus: 7 more prairie dogs.
Big kids: 75 dogs, since we add 11 each time. Bonus: 80 million more prairie dogs than people!
