No, they aren't - they're rodents, as are the prairie dogs, and they live in similar habitats, but here's where similarity ends. Okay - they also look alike; to a degree.
But they are not prairie dogs.
They're (European) Ziesel - Spermophilus citellus (European Ground Squirrel). And they still live in hilly heaths, wherever grass doesn't grow taller than they are: because they can't stand at all if they can't scout the immediate surroundings due to grass growing too high. Here you see two of them scouting; they let you come near only so far and if you proceed they just disappear, those sweet little buggers.
