Squirrel Facts: The European Ground Squirrel

The European ground squirrel, also called the European souslik, is one of only two species of ground squirrels that inhabit Europe. Its range covers parts of eastern and southeastern Europe, including Poland, southern Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Romania, Austria, Greece, Bulgaria, and Macedonia.

Like most ground squirrel species, European ground squirrels are diurnal (active during the day), and live in colonies made up of individual burrows. Their favored habitat is short-grass steppe, pastures, lawns, or park land. This squirrel is gray or yellow-gray in color, with a body about 8 inches long and the tail slightly over 2 inches.

This species eats a primarily herbivorous diet made up of grasses, roots, and seeds, along with some insects, which they carry in their cheeks to eat in the safety of the den. During foraging, some individuals act as sentinels, alerting the colony to danger with a whistling call. They hibernate from autumn until March, with the exact length of the hibernation varying by location depending on the severity of the winter.

Unfortunately, the European ground squirrel is threatened and has declined or disappeared over much of its range. It was declared extinct in Germany around 1985, and had also completely disappeared in Poland although it has since been reintroduced in that country. The primary reason for its disappearance has been the conversion of its meadow and grassland habitat into cultivated farmland. However, in some areas of Bulgaria and Romania, populations have stabilized or increased since the 1980s as agricultural intensity has reduced with the fall of former communist governments.

The European ground squirrel has been in the news recently in Vienna, Austria, where a colony of the threatened squirrels is delaying the construction of a new apartment complex. Officials in the city are trying to lure the animals away from the site by designing and constructing a new park nearby. The fifteen acre park will include "a wide range of flowers and herbs" that designers hope will induce at least half of the ground squirrels to move voluntarily, after which the remaining squirrels will be persuaded through the use of "light pressure" (what this would involve is not explained).

Of course, one might think that a more obvious solution would be to build the apartments on the site of the planned park, and let the ground squirrels stay where they are.

Why Did The Flying Squirrel Cross The Road?

In 2002, concerned scientists noticed that northern flying squirrels were unable to cross a stretch of scenic highway in the Unicoi Mountains of western North Carolina. This was a problem because the flying squirrels, which are declining in numbers, were unable to access foraging sites and get to others of their species for mating.

The Carolina northern flying squirrel is an endangered species that inhabits mountain forests of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The nocturnal squirrels glide by launching themselves from a tall tree, and can typically cover distances of up to about 80 feet. But the highway, along with an adjacent treeless area on both shoulders, created a space 125 feet wide, too much distance for the squirrels to cover.

Northern Flying Squirrel Gliding

Fortunately, biologists from the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission and North Carolina State University came up with a creative solution to this problem, and it seems to be working. The scientists have installed three pairs of wooden poles about 46 feet high, with launching platforms at the top of each pole. The poles in each pair are situated about 49 feet apart, on each side of the road. This gives the squirrels the means to launch themselves across the highway to find food, den sites, and mates.

A Northern Flying Squirrel at a Bird Feeder

To test whether the flying squirrels were using the platforms, the research team set up cameras at the poles for a 15 month period in 2009 and 2010. During this time, they captured 14 instances of the squirrels using the poles. Here is a video showing one of these instances:





It would be nice if the success of this project could lead to similar efforts in other locations. I have written about the squirrel bridges in the town of Longview, Washington, a very successful example of helping squirrels to avoid the dangers of road crossings. Unfortunately, not every effort has been so successful. In 2010, a proposal to erect rope bridges across two highways in Arizona to help the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel was defeated by that state's legislature, due to protests from right-wing politicians who objected to the cost. Hopefully Arizona's politicians will have a change of heart before it's too late for that threatened species.

Ban Animal Contest Kills

In the wake of the horrific Holley Squirrel Slaughter that I have written about, I have started a petition on Care2 asking the legislature of my home state, Texas, to ban all animal kill contests. You can click on the link or sign using the widget on the right hand side of the page.

Is Climate Change Creating A New Squirrel Species?

Is it possible that global warming could be causing the creation of new species of squirrels and other animals? According to a story on the Mother Nature Network website, climate change may be the cause for increasing numbers of hybrid flying squirrels being found in Canada.

These squirrels are hybrids of two species, the northern flying squirrel and the southern flying squirrel. As the names suggest, the northern flying squirrel is native to northern regions of the United States into Canada, while the southern flying squirrel is found further south in the United States. The northern flying squirrel is larger, and has a gray and white belly, while the smaller southern flying squirrel has an all-white belly. Hybrids between the two are the size of the southern flying squirrel, with mottled gray and white belly fur.

A northern flying squirrel visiting a
bird feeder

Recently, scientists in Ontario, Canada have discovered an increasing number of hybrids of the two species. Ontario is within the range of the northern flying squirrel, but is well to the north of the usual range for the southern flying squirrel. Researchers including Jeff Bowman theorize that warming temperatures are driving some species, including the southern flying squirrel, farther to the north, so that the ranges of these two species now overlap more than they did in the past. A recent survey found that around four percent of flying squirrels in Ontario are now hybrids.

A southern flying squirrel

This is certainly not the first example of hybridization between species. The story cites the example of cross-breeding between grizzly bears and polar bears, which may also increase with the effects of global warming. But Bowman and other scientists believe that the flying squirrels are the first documented case of a hybrid species specifically caused by human-generated climate change. It is not clear what the long-term impact of hybridization might be for the flying squirrels or other species. Might a new flying squirrel species created by cross-breeding be better adapted to deal with a warmer climate? It's too soon to tell.

Holley Squirrel Slaughter Update

Today, in Albany, New York, wildlife rehabilitator Carrie Leo is presenting almost 15,000 petition signatures at a news conference with NY state senator Tony Avella. The petition asks the village of Holley, NY and the Holley Fire Department to cancel its annual "Squirrel Slam," the fundraising event at which "hunters" will compete to kill squirrels. Prizes will be given in adult and youth categories to those who kill the heaviest squirrels, and in a separate drawing after the hunt, firearms will be awarded as prizes.

With less than a week to go before the bloodbath, the town seems to have dug in its heels and resisted the massive public call to stop the event. There has even been an effort to raise money for the fire department to replace the funds that it would lose if it did cancel the hunt.

Photo by Morgan Jamie Dunbar

What I am afraid that many of the supporters of the Squirrel Slam do not understand (or refuse to acknowledge) is that the protest is not about taking away their right to hunt or to own a gun. While I am sure that many of the protesters, myself included, do support common sense gun control measures, that is a separate issue. This protest is not about banning hunting, where a reasonable number of animals are taken for food. It is about holding a contest to kill as many squirrels as possible, for no purpose other than to win prizes. It is about encouraging children to think of pointless, purposeless killing as a fun way to spend an afternoon. It is about a culture that cheapens and trivializes life and death.

I still hold out hope that the town of Holley will  listen to the voices of all who are speaking out and decide to cancel the Squirrel Slam. If this year's event does go on, I hope that the powers that be in the town will quietly reconsider and find a more humane fundraising event for next year and future years going forward. And I hope that other communities that hold similar cruel and callous killing contests will look at the outcry over the Squirrel Slam and know that they too will risk the same negative spotlight of attention if they continue holding these events.

Update: Here is an account of Senator Avella's press conference that was held this afternoon.

Here is another account of the press conference, with video.

Help For the Mount Graham Red Squirrel?

The Mount Graham red squirrel has been listed as an endangered species since 1987, after having previously been thought extinct. It lives a precarious existence in a small area of Arizona, where it numbers only slightly above 200 individuals. Now it appears that a long-planned captive breeding program at the Phoenix Zoo may finally be nearing approval from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

This small subspecies of the North American red squirrel lives in high-elevations conifer forests in the Pinaleno Mountains of Arizona, where it has been isolated from other red squirrels for over ten thousand years. Its numbers have declined due to habitat loss, drought and forest fires. In the 1990s this squirrel became controversial when conservation groups objected to the construction of a University of Arizona observatory in its territory, and since the construction the numbers of squirrels have been closely monitored.

The Phoenix Zoo captured four of the squirrels, two males and two females, in 2011 when it feared that wildfires that summer might devastate the remaining population. The two females died, but the males remain in captivity at the zoo. Zoo researchers have been learning everything that they can about these squirrels in the hopes of starting a captive breeding program to replenish the numbers, which are currently so low that the species could be exterminated by a single ecological disaster such as a forest fire or severe drought.

One of the captive male Mount Graham red squirrels

There are difficulties with any effort to breed Mount Graham red squirrels in captivity. The squirrels are extremely territorial, and will not tolerate the presence of other squirrels in their vicinity except for mating. The females of the species go into heat for only one day a year, so the timing has to be perfect. The zoo researchers are developing a guide for keeping the squirrels in captivity, which is being updated as they learn more.

The proposed pilot program calls for capturing a maximum of sixteen Mount Graham red squirrels over a period of ten years for captive breeding. After that ten years, a decision would be made based on results, on whether to launch a full breeding program. The Fish and Wildlife Service may approve the pilot program as early as this spring, although further delays are also possible.

The real question, of course, is whether the species can survive long enough to see the implementation of the program.

More On The Squirrel Bridges of Longview, WA

I have not yet found a photo of the new squirrel bridge in Longview that I wrote about in my last post. However, I did just run across this photo from the Washington Post of the town's second squirrel bridge, which was installed in November 2011, and I wanted to share it. As you can see, it is a very nice covered copper span: