Brian Kane, age 9, of Utica, New York, for his question:

What is the animal family of the prairie dog?

Nowadays, not many of us get to see a prairie dog. But the pioneers who went West in covered wagons saw thousands of them. The pioneers did not know much about animal families If they did, they might not have named these furry little fellows prairie dogs.

Scientists have sorted all the known animals into a number of huge groups. Some of the animals in each group are related to each other, but not all of them. All the animals in a group, however, are alike in some ways, even when they are not at all related to each other. The prairie dog belongs in the animal class Mammalia. Like all mammals, he is an air breathing, warm blooded animal, almost always with a furry coat, and his babies are fed on mother's milk.

Dozens and dozens of animals belong in the mammal class and some of them are very different from each other. There are bears and beavers, rats and raccoons, dogs and deer, cats and kangaroos, pigs and porcupines. The sea going seal is a mammal and so is the whale, even though he does not wear the usual mammal coat of hair or fur. It seemed sensible to divide the big mammal class into smaller groups. These are called orders. The prairie dog was placed in the animal order "Rodentia." Lassie and all the other dogs were placed in the animal order "Carnivora."

The names of these animal groups have special meanings that tell us something about them. Rodentia means "the gnawing animals" and all the rodent animals have special front teeth meant for gnawing and nibbling. Carnivora means "the meat eating animals." This is the order of the cats and badgers, the dogs and other meat eaters. The prairie dog dines only on vegetables. The dog and the prairie dog are both mammals, but they are so different from each other that scientists classify them in different orders:

The prairie dog shares the toothy order Rodentia with a vast assortment of rats and mice. Beavers and guinea pigs also are rodents. So are the prickly porcupines and the fluffy little chinchillas, the gophers and the groundhogs and all the pert and pretty squirrels. It seemed sensible to divide the big order of rodents into smaller groups. These smaller groups are called the animal families. The members of an animal family could be mistaken for cousins and as a rule they are quite closely related to each other.

The family "Sciuridae" means "the squirrel type animals." There are flying squirrels and bushy tailed, tree climbing squirrels and squirrels that live in burrows. The bulky groundhog and the frisky chipmunk are squirrels    and so is the prairie dog. He belongs in the animal family Sciuridae. All the squirrels are gentle and usually playful creatures. The prairie dog is one of the cutest of them all and you would love to hear the details of his fascinating life. But that, says Andy, is a topic for another question.

An animal family is divided into smaller genera, each one of which is a genus. A genus is a small number of species and every animal has a species all to himself. The common prairie dog, who has a black tail, shares the genus "Cynomys" with his white tailed cousin. But he shares the "ludovicianus" species with no other animal in the world. But if he could write, he rightfully could sign his name Cynomys ludnvicianus    a fancy scientific name that means "the Mousy Playful One."