At least when marinated in Italian dressing, prairie canine isn’t half-bad desk fare, a South Dakota man who as soon as dined on the burrowing rodents instructed Cowboy State Daily.
Considering that the standard prairie canine weight loss program is much like that of cottontail rabbits, it ought to come as no shock that the meat of the 2 critters is of comparable high quality, stated Gerald Jasmer.
“If you consider what prairie dogs eat — other than the fact that they can be little cannibals — they eat the choicest shoots and the most tender grasses,” he stated. “Their diet is similar to that of a bunny. And bunnies sometimes eat their own poop, but people still like rabbit meat.”
Prairie dogs had been on the menu throughout a conservation dinner in western Nebraska he helped arrange within the Nineteen Nineties.
“I would guess that 15-20 men and women tried them and I believe the honest ones would say that the prairie dog tasted better than the prairie grouse. I would eat it again, as long as I could follow it up with a well-prepared bison steak,” Jasmer stated.
Jasmer reached out and shared his story with Cowboy State Daily in response to a recent story about what animals to eat in a survival scenario, during which some Wyoming outdoorsmen balked on the concept of ever having to resort to consuming prairie dogs.
Long Conservation Career
Jasmer lately retired from a profession with the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Services. He labored in a number of states, together with Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota.
An avid hunter and angler, he nonetheless continuously returns to Wyoming, most lately for an elk hunt with household close to Casper.
“Out of a party of four, two of us harvested cow elk. I didn’t get one, but I helped my nephew get his first elk ever,” Jasmer stated.
Regarding eating on rodents, he defined how the dinner, which included prairie canine hindquarters, took place.
“In the early 1990s, I helped organized a meeting of range management specialists and wildlife biologists in western Nebraska. Prior to a great dinner of bison steak, we had appetizers of prairie chicken, sharp-tailed grouse and prairie dog hindquarters,” he stated.
“We marinated each in zesty Italian dressing and grilled them,” he added.
The concept was, as a result of the occasion was organized round prairie conservation, a full vary of prairie wildlife needs to be on the menu, Jasmer stated.
He and a colleague had shot the prairie dogs themselves.
“I removed hind and a few front quarters, skinned and froze them,” Jasmer stated. “When I skinned out the individual quarters of the rodents, I left the feet and ‘claws’ on to differentiate them from grouse drumsticks — and because they looked cooler that way.”
However, the cooking course of produced some frightening-looking outcomes.
“I had not anticipated that the heat of the grill would cause their tendons to tighten and pull the toes and nails into a rather scary and sad contracted claws. This alone put a few people off from sampling them. But they also served as nifty toothpicks,” Jasmer stated.
His personal private evaluation is that the prairie canine hindquarters, whereas actually palatable, weren’t precisely a delicacy.
“They certainly weren’t as good as the bison steak we had a little bit later,” he stated. “And I’m not going to lie and tell people they tasted like chicken.”
Watch Out For Those Fleas
If anyone is contemplating capturing and cooking some prairie dogs for themselves, Jasmer adamantly advises they be careful for fleas on the animals’ hides.
Prairie dogs can generally carry the plague, which will be transmitted to people by way of flea bites.
It’s finest to attend for cooler climate, and to hold again and let the prairie canine carcasses cool off earlier than skinning them, Jasmer stated.
“We did shoot them during the fall, when there were cooler temperatures. And we shot them out of a prairie dog town that looked healthy. When plague hits a prairie dog town, it tends to wipe them out,” he stated.
“We let them cool down quite a bit after we shot them. Fleas tend to jump ship when a carcass cools,” he added.
Better Than Ducks
So, when ready correctly, prairie canine isn’t practically as unhealthy as some individuals think about it to be, Jasmer stated. Although he’s nonetheless extra keen on the Wyoming elk steaks from his household’s recent hunt.
He added that he additionally enjoys duck searching, which South Dakota is legendary for, however he tends to provide his geese away to different individuals as a result of he thinks the meat has a gamey “liver” taste to it.
“I’d still eat a prairie dog before I’d eat duck,” he stated.
Mark Heinz will be reached at [email protected].
