 However, in the mid-1980s he switched his research efforts to studying the social behavior and communication of prairie dogs.He has been decoding the communication system of alarm calls, and he and his students have found that prairie dogs have a sophisticated communication system that can identify the species of predator and provides descriptive information about the size, shape, and color of the individual predator animal.His research in prairie dog communication has also shown displacement, the ability to communicate about things that are not present.