Minnesota Department of Natural Resource’s Division of Fish and Wildlife recently launched its new “Window On Wildlife” outdoor camera to capture wildlife and their activities, live, for public viewing and streaming on the DNR website. The first viewing opportunity involved a hen wood duck inside her nesting box incubating eggs and later hatching them. The month-long spectacle was a hit.
This month the camera was moved to a water impoundment in Grant County where the camera is capturing beautiful sunrises and waterfowl activity. Check it out at
dnr.state.mn.us/wildlife/window-wildlife.
Following the camera’s wood duck site, DNR staff was planning to move the camera to a Richardson’s ground squirrel colony located in Polk County but plans changed when it was discovered that the population had either moved to a different location or most of them had died out.
Reasons for the latter is conjecture, but possibilities include last year’s drought that caused a decrease in food availability, last spring’s overland flooding or disease, or a combination of these factors and more. Hopefully, the population will bounce back or return, and the camera can be moved there next summer.
Richardson’s ground squirrel is a species of ground squirrel with colonial habits like prairie dogs. No other Minnesota native ground squirrel has quite as social a lifestyle as what Richardson’s ground squirrels enjoy. The closely related and similar-looking Franklin’s ground squirrel are non-colonial, woodland dwellers whereas Richardson’s ground squirrels occupy open landscapes.
Belonging to the squirrel family, Richardson’s ground squirrel — so named after Scottish naturalist Sir John Richardson — is further classified as a ground squirrel, because, unlike its arboreal cousins such as gray squirrels, fox squirrels, red squirrels and flying squirrels, they spend a large percentage of their lifespan in a network of underground burrows.
Moreover, Richardson ground squirrels are true hibernators. Indeed, all ground squirrels enter very deep states of hibernation inside snug and warm underground sleeping chambers. Other ground squirrels include chipmunks, thirteen-lined ground squirrels and woodchucks.
Surprisingly, during summer’s hottest time of the year is the period when adult Richardson’s ground squirrels prepare for hibernation. Adult males are the first to go “down under,” followed by females in late July or early August. Juveniles are the last to hibernate, usually mid to late September.
Richardson’s ground squirrels are about the size of red squirrels in total length (a little over eight inches long from nose to the tip of their short little tail), though much “plumper” in appearance. Given the mammal’s gray-yellow coloration, it’s no wonder that people compare Richardson’s ground squirrels to prairie dogs.
Couple Richardson’s ground squirrels’ physical characteristics with their communal behavior that, together, are so similar to prairie dogs, it’s easy to understand why comparisons are made between the two species. Indeed, Richardson’s ground squirrel colonies are very much like prairie dog towns in both social dynamics and appearance.
Ranging throughout Minnesota’s western fringe, including the Red River valley, Richardson’s ground squirrels are a species of ground squirrel well-adapted to the northern Great Plains’ grasslands and croplands of western Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, Montana and in other western states, too.
The little rodents’ penchant for standing vigil at the mounded entrances of their burrows is a pleasing sight to be sure, and a sight worth seeing.
Richardson’s ground squirrels are charming little rodents of the prairie. These mammals, so well-adapted to living out their lives in the windswept, harsh environment of dry prairie habitats, are nonetheless sensitive to habitat loss just as any other species.
However, what with prairie grassland habitat as diminished as it is across Minnesota’s western landscape, the few remaining Richardson’s ground squirrel populations and their preferred habitats are critical to preserve and protect. Maybe next summer Window On Wildlife will allow you, too, to view this special animal as we get out and enjoy the great outdoors.
Blane Klemek is a Minnesota DNR wildlife manager. He can be reached at
