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Kissing Prairie Dogs, U.S. West, 1998

"Prairie dogs touch noses in a possible prelude to a kin recognition ritual that involves a touching of teeth and sometimes a locking of incisors. Recent research shows that the animals' alarm calls consist of a broad vocabulary of descriptions to characterize a predator's identity, size, and speed."

—From "The Vanishing Prairie Dog," April 1998, National Geographic magazine

Photograph by Raymond Gehman