Habitat consists of dry, flat or gently sloping, open grasslands with low, relatively sparse vegetation, including areas overgrazed by cattle. The species occurs in open vacant lots at town edges in some areas. Young are born in underground burrows.

Habitat includes all major grassland types - short, mixed and tall; most abundant and an important community member in the Mixed Grass Prairie and Short Grass Plains associations (Carpenter 1940, in Osborn 1942). Tallgrass prairie habitat is mainly areas where wild or domestic ungulates or other disturbance has reduced the stature of the tallgrass; prairie dogs maintain the vegetation in a low stature.

Fine to medium textured soils are preferred (Koford 1958), presumably because burrows and other structures tend to retain their shape and strength better than in coarse, loose soils. However, sandy soils often support larger, coarser graminoids with lower forage quality; prairie dogs may avoid these forages and thus associated sandy areas. Colonies commonly are found on silty clay loams, sandy clay loams, and loams (Agnew et al. 1986). Encroachment into sands (e.g., loamy fine sand) occurs if the habitat is needed for colony expansion (Osborn 1942).

By colonizing areas with low vegetative stature, prairie dogs often select areas with past human (as well as animal) disturbance. In North Dakota and Montana, colonies tended to be associated with areas heavily used by cattle, such as water tanks and long-term supplemental feeding sites (Licht and Sanchez 1993).

Breeding system is harem-polygamous, with most females copulating with one male and males with several females (Hoogland and Folts 1982). Litter size typically averages about four. Individual females produce one litter per year.

This is primarily a Great Plains species, originally occurring from extreme southern Saskatchewan in Canada (Frenchman River Valley), and Montana south through the western and central Great Plains to the desert grasslands of western Texas, New Mexico, southeastern Arizona (formerly) in the United States, and northeastern Sonora, and northern Chihuahua in Mexico (Koford 1958). The species is now extirpated from southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and locally in many other areas throughout its range.

Many colonies are in national parks, state parks, and other protected lands, most of which prohibit prairie dog control/eradication. However, few colonies are provided protection, even in parks. Large, core occurrences need protection from population control.

Inventories are needed range-wide, and they should determine locations and sizes of colonies, ownership, and the presence of plague.

Of primary concern is the long-term viability of colonies in relation to size and distance to nearby colonies. Additionally, research into prairie dog genetics is needed to determine if currently reduced populations and habitat fragmentation are causing damaging levels of inbreeding.