Geo,

The symbiotic relationship that a raptor provides a prairie dog town is thus:

Prairie Dogs breed at a high rate of speed. They annex new territory quickly. The higher their numbers, the increased odds of disease and in particular, bubonic plague. (for which they are hosts) Pressure from raptors kills the weak, the dumb and the frail of the prairie dog town keeping the stock healthy and in check.

Further, the pressure from the raptors reduces feeding opportunities for the prairie dogs (keeping them close to holes) which reduces their sprawl and consumption of limited sage habitat desirable for other members of the ecosystem.

For more than half a century there was a double eyrie (nest) of Ferruginous hawks in Wyoming not far from Medicine Bow on BLM (Bureau of Land Management, Public Land) The primary eyrie was at least 15' tall and produced as many as 6 chicks per year. The secondary (backup nest) eyrie was only 30 yards away and was perhaps 8' tall.

In the tremendous valley adjacent the eyrie was a huge prairie dog town that provided enough food to create a sustainable food base for the largest hawk in North America. (A species so large Audobon called them "spotted eagles")

When I went out about 6 years ago to check in on the area all the prairie dogs were gone. Not half, not 95%. Every prairie dog out of the hundreds and hundreds that existed were gone. In the valley there was thousands of .223 military trash-grade brass cases where it was clear a group of yahoos came in, came onto WE THE PEOPLE'S LAND and exterminated an ecosystem.

The Ferruginous hawk eyries are still there but the nests are no longer active. Did the wholesale slaughter of all the dogs force the hawks to move from their 50 year home? Or, did the pile of lead infused prairie dogs become foraging ground for them until lead toxicity took hold and eradicated the hawks directly?

Either way, this is the kind of BS that varmint hunters do for pleasure on national lands with little understanding of the harm they are causing. These animals weren't "varmints" hurting a farmer or rancher's land, they were part of a natural, intact ecosystem. Some schmucks just came along and exterminated that ecosystem for pleasure using lead ammunition where 100% certainty is that they left the carcasses to rot in the open until another animal consumed them and received secondary poisoning.

As hunters we have to be better than this. We have to prune our own ranks and ostracize these marginal, fringe hunters, self regulate and protect our sports from these people's negative PR.