Rare White Prairie Dogs

I was reading Geek Trivia and it had this question:
"Which of these North American mammals has a sophisticated language system?" 
Elk, Prairie Dogs, Raccoons, or Coyotes
I choose prairie dogs and learned:
Recent research indicates that prairie dog calls, which were long believed to just be simple barks and chirps intended to sound a general alarm, are actually a language system that can communicate a high degree of detail about what is going on in the prairie dog community...specific calls for coyotes and wild dogs, unarmed men and armed men, and they even indicate if a predator is on the ground or in the air. The prairie dogs can communicate not just what the threat is, but what direction it is coming from and at what speed. Plus their vocal nature doesn't increase the risk of getting killed as they project their voices like a ventriloquist and when multiple prairie dogs are repeating the call, it becomes impossible to use your ear to narrow down the location of the animals.

Wow! Then I remembered Tinky Winky and I visiting The Prairie Homestead, Badlands, South Dakota in September of 2002. (Note small white animal, right of center.)

They had many rare white prairie dogs.

They are not albino, they are leucistic, which means their skin and fur lack basic color pigmentation.

And, this area had lots of them.

Here are some additional images I captured on that trip: 

Love those wagon wheels...

Newhaven Harbor (Edinburgh) - 17 JUN 2016

Today we were tendered into shore:

 And got a warm greeting on a rainy day.

Our tour bus took us around the city, stopping once at the National Museum of Scotland. 

   Columbian Printing Press/Lens from Inchkeith Lighthouse

             Buddha Amida       Statue of Arensnuphis

Giant Deer

The Millennium Clock

A mechanical clock tower that has several moving parts which represent the human suffering of the 20^th century. It chimes every hour and you can see it on this YouTube link: The Millennium Clock

 We got off the bus and walked in the rain.

This was a well:

Maybe Monty Python got the "I'm not dead, yet" idea from this building.

In 1861 a tenement collapsed; Joseph Mclver, was pulled to safety when rescuers heard his call of "Heave awa, chaps, an'm no, deid yet."

 We had the best time at the Museum of Childhood.

This museum was created by Patrick Murray, a middle aged bachelor who said, "Children are only tolerable after their baths and on the way to bed."

Didn't know US 50's television had such an impact on Great Britain.

Now this seems more like it:

Then it was back to the ship and time to head for home.

After a day at sea, we docked at Harwich and took a 1½ hour bus ride (at 6:30 AM) to Heathrow.