{"id":380596,"date":"2025-12-31T22:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T22:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/380596\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T22:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T22:44:09","slug":"can-this-brave-prairie-dog-save-his-pups-from-being-devoured-by-a-deadly-bull-snake-watch-the-brutal-and-heart-wrenching-bbc-footage-to-find-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/380596\/","title":{"rendered":"Can this brave prairie dog save his pups from being devoured by a deadly bull snake? Watch the brutal and heart-wrenching BBC footage to find out&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On the prairies of northern <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/national-animal-of-mexico\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mexico<\/a>, black-tailed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/gunnisons-prairie-dog-facts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">prairie dogs<\/a> live in sprawling colonies made up of dozens of family groups. Each family has a dominant male, several females and their young, all living together underground.<\/p>\n<p>In May, six-week-old pups take their first steps above ground. The prairie grasses and plants provide all the food and moisture they need \u2013 but exploring the open terrain is dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>Prairie dogs face a range of predators, including birds of prey and coyotes. But one of their most persistent hunters is the bull snake. This powerful constrictor is capable of suffocating adult prairie dogs, but vulnerable pups in their burrows make a far easier meal.<\/p>\n<p>Watch this incredible close-up footage to see the brave dominant male take on the bull snake to defend its burrow and save its pups.<\/p>\n<p>Watch black-tailed prairie dog battle bull snake<\/p>\n<p>This clip was taken from the BBC&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/b08qdsfg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wild Mexico<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Main image: Black-tailed prairie dog. Credit: Getty images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the prairies of northern Mexico, black-tailed prairie dogs live in sprawling colonies made up of dozens of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-380596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}