Curlews and Prairie Dogs: A Study in Survival

Why did the ornithologist strap a taxidermy badger to a remote controlled car and drive it around the prairie? To interrogate the secret world of animal eavesdropping in the grasslands, of course! Today on the show, we travel to the most imperiled ecosystem on the planet to unravel a prairie mystery and find out why prairie dogs are grassland engineers worth keeping tabs on.

Got a question about other animal ecosystem engineers? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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