Unlimited squirrels—and a look at muskrats
Unlimited squirrels—and a look at muskrats
This Week in Mammals, Part 1
It would be sad if we only looked for birds and didn’t notice the quadrupeds, insects, grasses, forbs, and fungi all around us. That’s why this Monday’s post and next Monday’s post diverge from birds and instead feature mammals.
I grew up on the Allegheny Plateau east of Cleveland, Ohio. There was nary a Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel to be found. These are squirrels of the prairies and plains, found from western Ohio across the mid-continent to the Rockies and points north and south. I’ve seen them as far north as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the “tip of the mitt” in Lower Michigan.
The Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel is a member of the same genus as prairie dogs and marmots, and much like those species it relies on the shelter of burrows. In fact, this species of Ground Squirrel spends more time in its burrow asleep than it spends awake, earning it the title of “Iowa’s sleepiest mammal.” A little bigger than a chipmunk, the squirrel gets lumped in with gophers and other burrowing animals. But it’s not a true gopher, which is a whole ’nother Family of rodents.
The Hawkeye State may be ground zero (no pun intended) for the Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel. In the Des Moines area, it’s known as a “squinny” for reasons that are unclear. Elsewhere it’s even called a “streaker” or “liner.” From the Des Moines Register in 2015:
In case you missed it, a 1970 article called “Midwestern Terms for the Ground Squirrel” in the journal Western Folklore noted that the term “grinnie” showed up in Oskaloosa as well as Monona County, way over on the Missouri River. Elsewhere, the animal has been called a flickertail, picket pin, prairie squirrel, prairie gopher, grass gopher, ground gopher, plus various “streaked” and “striped” variations therein, including the Minnesota striped squirrel.
If you’re looking for one in Illinois, I suggest staying away from Chicago and its immediate suburbs—there are no squinnies here. But elsewhere in the state, I suggest checking most any open grassy area, places like highway rest areas, state park picnic groves, even ballfields, or grass strips around farmland (in the middle of summer). There’s a good bet a Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel will be standing sentry over its plains and prairie environs.
The Muskrat: A semiaquatic kind of life
If you see a medium-sized mammal swimming in a local waterway, there’s a good chance it’s a Muskrat. These are semiaquatic rodents, with webbed feet, closely related to voles and lemmings. They’re distinguishable from the Beaver by their generally smaller size and their long tails (rather than the Beaver’s flat, wide tail). They’re distinguishable from the Mink, a semiaquatic Mustelid, by their roundish appearance and thinner tail.
Muskrats live in burrows along creeks and rivers and in “push-ups,” or houses, in marshes. These are the messy piles of mud and vegetation that are often encountered by birders in the field. Muskrats can be considered helpful to migratory waterfowl and shorebirds as they clear wetlands of reeds and cattails. Of course, they’re also a prey item for hawks and owls, and myriad mammalian species.
Muskrats oddly may also have an impact on the prevalence of the watery areas known as fluddles. At least one downstate road commissioner has expressed concern about fluddles built too close to thoroughfares. Muskrats may burrow under and cause the road to buckle.
Look for Muskrats most anywhere you find water. Their diet is 95 percent herbivorous, and they stay active all year-round.
The Gray Squirrel: Morph madness
A quick internet search results in statements that black varieties of the Gray Squirrel are found in only one in 10,000 of the Sciuridae species. However, I would argue that one in 10 Gray Squirrels in some portions of Chicagoland are of the black morph. It seems the black phase is more common in northern climes like Chicago, Detroit, and Toronto.
Gray Squirrels are generally the only squirrel species found in the city limits of Chicago. However, on a run in the far northwestern part of the city I saw an individual of the much larger Fox Squirrel species last year.
Why Gray Squirrels are more prevalent than Fox Squirrels in some areas is a bit of a mystery. Some say that Gray Squirrels are more common in bottomlands than upland areas. They also may be more gregarious than Fox Squirrels, so living in the dense quarters of the city seems to make some sense. Another quirk of these splendid species!
Chicago’s unfortunate “rat” hole
The internet’s latest unpleasantness is a rat-shaped pothole on a sidewalk in Roscoe Village. The impression of a rodentine creature—it very well might be a Gray Squirrel—went viral when a photo was posted on social media earlier in the month. The number of visitors to the site are getting out of hand as nearby neighbors are tired of the commotion. One wonders how the unfortunate creature ended up immortalized in the concrete. But now there is talk of filling the hole, lest this become a modern-day fossil of our urban wildlife.
We live in the woods of the Blue Ridge mountains close to the North Carolina boarder. We of course are well acquainted with the gray and fox squirrels but after 20 years of never seeing a chipmunk they suddenly have arrived in force. Such a delightful neighbor to have around. We have a tame crow whose favorite game is chasing after the chipmunks. He likes to think he’s in charge.