Prairie Dog Song (and Official Music Video)

September 7, 2021 Lana Knedlik

During our travels through Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and South Dakota, we fell in love with prairie dogs. Seriously, folks, we spent HOURS by the side of the road watching these cute little critters. All of that inspired me to write the "Prairie Dog Song."

Hope you enjoy the music and fall in love with them too :-)

P.S: I am not a professional singer or musician. Be kind.

Prairie Dog Song Lyrics

Verse I:
At Cheyenne Mountain,
Echo Canyon,
Custer State Park,
And the Badlands

Are creatures brown
And a little hairy
Hiding underground
On the prairie.

Chorus:
They pop up. They dart down
And make strange chirping sounds
Scurry from mound to mound
In their little Prairie Dog Town

Verse 2:
"Ground Rats!"
Proclaimed William Clark
Meriwether Lewis called them
Squirrels that bark.*

They aren’t canines
But then in his travelogues
Sergeant Ordway named them
"Prairie dogs!"

Verse 3:
They eat grass
They eat seeds
And lay in the sun
As they please.

When strangers come
They might sense harm
So they scatter and sound
The Prairie Dog alarm.

Refrain:
I guess they are rodents.
They sure aren’t hounds.
They are a family
that likes throw down

It’s WWE near my campground
In that little Prairie dog town.

NOTES ON THE PRAIRIE DOG SONG

*In writing the Praire Dog, it was unclear to me who first coined the term "prairie dogs." This article from History.com suggests that Ordway first called them prairie dogs. However, from what I could tell, on September 7, 1804, Lieutenant Clark called them "ground rats", while Sergeants Ordway and Gass and Private Whitehouse used the term "prairie dogs" (with some unique spellings) on that same day. Both Captain Lewis (2/25/1806) and Lieutenant Clark (8/31/1806) called them "barking squirrels." But that doesn't rhyme as well as "squirrels that bark." Duh.

Citations:
https://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/item/lc.jrn.1804-09-07#lc.jrn.1804-09-07.04
https://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/item/lc.jrn.1806-08-31#lc.jrn.1806-08-31.01
https://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/item/lc.jrn.1806-02-25#lc.jrn.1806-02-25.01

Music Credits to the Prairie Dog Song:

(1) The music (“Funky Background”) was recorded by Twisterium and is available at pixabay.com.

https://pixabay.com/music/funk-funky-background-7664/

(2) The lyrics/vocals/remix were created by Lana Knedlik. The lyrics/vocals/remix are what constitutes the "official music video" (not the underlying song).