Prairie dog#
![In museum, Photo: H. Maurer, Fall 2005](/attach/Geography/America/Canada/Pictures/Yukon_Maurer/Museum_%288%29/scaled-900x675-a116.jpg)
In museum
Photo: H. Maurer, Fall 2005
Photo: H. Maurer, Fall 2005
Prairie dogs are named for their habitat and warning call, which sounds similar to a dog's bark. The name was in use at least as early as 1774.
The 1804 journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition note that in September 1804, they "discovered a Village of an animal the French Call the Prairie Dog."
Its genus, Cynomys, derives from the Greek for "dog mouse".