YOUNG: We leave you this week with a chuckle.

YOUNG: These white-tailed prairie dogs might have been laughing at producer Jeff Rice as he recorded their calls with a large parabolic microphone in Deseret Ranch in northern Utah. But the well being of this species is no laughing matter. Their populations – and habitat - are in decline due to disease and development, yet the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service just declared the white-tailed prairie dog does not require protection under the Endangered Species Act. Jeff Rice recorded them for the University of Utah Marriott Library, westernsoundscape.org.