Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Franklin's ground squir­rels live in the north­ern part of the Amer­i­can tall­grass prairie. They occur from the south­west of On­tario west to cen­tral Man­i­toba, south through cen­tral North Dakota and cen­tral Kansas. They are found as far east as west-cen­tral In­di­ana, and north­west to the Lake Michi­gan shore in the Michi­gan City-Chicago area. They also occur through south­ern Wis­con­sin and cen­tral Min­nesota. (Baker, 1983)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

Franklin's ground squir­rel can be found in the tall­grass prairie areas of the north­cen­tral United States and ad­ja­cent parts of Canada. They live at the bor­der be­tween grassy areas and woody veg­e­ta­tion be­cause of the di­verse food sources avail­able (Baker, 1983). These squir­rels are not often seen be­cause of their pref­er­ence for densely veg­e­tated areas.

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Franklin's ground squir­rels are larger than the av­er­age ground squir­rel. They have a slen­der and elon­gated body that mea­sures 355 to 410 mm in total length, tail length mea­sures 120 to 158 mm. The pelage is and short salt-and-pep­per col­ored and the tail is bushy. The head and tail are gray­ish as a re­sult of of al­ter­nat­ing bands of black and white on the in­di­vid­ual hairs. The feet are pale gray and the ears are short and ovate. Males are heav­ier than fe­males and win­ter and sum­mer weights vary sig­nif­i­cantly. Males range from 370 to 500 g in spring, upon emerg­ing from hi­ber­na­tion to 570 to 950 g in late fall, be­fore en­ter­ing hi­ber­na­tion. Fe­male weights range from 340 to 425 g in spring and 500 to 760 g in fall. (Baker, 1983; Nowak,1991)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Range mass

  340 to 950 g

  11.98 to 33.48 oz

• Average basal metabolic rate

  2.19 W

  AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

There is a great deal of ri­valry dur­ing courtship among males in their pur­suit of a fe­male. Musky dis­charges from the anal glands play a role in the sex at­tract­ing process. The mat­ing phase of the re­pro­duc­tive process is com­pleted by mid-April. The ges­ta­tion pe­riod is about 28 days. The young are born in May or June. Franklin's ground squir­rels have one lit­ter an­nu­ally, which con­tains from 5-10 ba­bies (av­er­age 7). At birth the young are naked and blind but at ten days old fuzzy hair ap­pears. At 20 days their eyes open and they can emit whis­tle calls. At 30 days the young ven­ture out­side and at 40 days the wean­ing process is com­pleted. By the time win­ter comes, the young are al­most adult size. The young squir­rels are not in­ter­ested in mat­ing until after hi­ber­na­tion at the end of their first year. (Baker, 1983; Nowak, 1991)

• Key Reproductive Features
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual

• Average number of offspring

  7.5

  AnAge

• Average gestation period

  28 days

  AnAge

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
  Sex: female

  327 days

  AnAge

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
  Sex: male

  327 days

  AnAge

Lifes­pan/Longevity

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  7.2 years

  AnAge

Be­hav­ior

Franklin's ground squir­rels lack the noisy and "cu­ri­ous" ac­tions that are ap­par­ent in their rel­a­tives, they are rel­a­tively in­con­spic­u­ous. Franklin's ground squir­rels don't usu­ally stand in an up­right po­si­tion, as their rel­a­tives do when alarmed. In­stead they im­me­di­ately seek refuge in their bur­rows.

Franklin ground squir­rels are most ac­tive on bright, sunny days. They are es­ti­mated to spend ap­prox­i­mately 10% of their time above ground. They usu­ally in­habit an area that is about 300 feet in di­am­e­ter. They dig ground bur­rows that may ex­tend as much as 8 ft un­der­ground, and that have sev­eral branches and open­ings. Bur­rows can be found in tall grass or weed cover, on rocky slopes, on rail­road em­bank­ments, and under logs, rocks, and fences.

Franklin's ground squir­rels can swim and climb trees. They are less so­cial than other ground squir­rel species but do often live in loose ag­gre­ga­tions.

They have been know to make a va­ri­ety of calls, sug­gest­ing gre­gar­i­ous re­la­tion­ship. The mean­ing of the calls is not know, but they are de­scribed as being clear and mu­si­cal.

Franklin's ground squir­rels put on a heavy layer of fat in the late sum­mer for sus­te­nance dur­ing win­ter hi­ber­na­tion. By late Sep­tem­ber, each squir­rel has se­lected an un­der­ground spot for hi­ber­na­tion. It hi­ber­nates through the win­ter and emerges in late March or early April. (Baker, 1983; Nowak, 1991)

• Key Behaviors
• motile

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

• Perception Channels
• tactile
• chemical

Food Habits

Franklin's ground squir­rels' diet con­sists of tough veg­etable fibers and hard-shelled seeds and fruits. They feed on the veg­e­ta­tive parts of grasses, clovers, mus­tard, dan­de­lion, straw­berry, this­tle and other plants. Seeds and fruits as well as cul­ti­vated crops such as corn, oats, wheat and a va­ri­ety of gar­den veg­eta­bles are also part of their diet. Franklin's ground squir­rels also eat some an­i­mal ma­te­r­ial, in­clud­ing bee­tles, cater­pil­lars, grasshop­pers, crick­ets, ants, small birds, ducks, deer mice, frogs, toads, birds' or ducks' eggs, and even other ground squir­rels. (Baker, 1983)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Franklin's ground squir­rels dis­perse the seeds of many plant species.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Franklin's ground squir­rel are some­times con­sid­ered nui­sances to prairie farm­ers and gar­den­ers. In years with a high pop­u­la­tion of Franklin's ground squir­rels, they have been seen as se­ri­ous com­peti­tors for agri­cul­tur­ists' grains and veg­eta­bles (Jones and Bir­ney, 1988; Baker, 1983)

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Franklin's ground squir­rels are rel­a­tively rare through­out their range, though they may be lo­cally abun­dant. In re­cent decades pop­u­la­tions through­out the mid­west­ern United States have de­clined dra­mat­i­cally. They are now listed as en­dan­gered in Iowa, a species of spe­cial con­cern in Wis­con­sin, rare in Iowa, and pop­u­la­tions in Illi­nois are in de­cline.

(Pergams, 2002)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Other Com­ments

Franklins' ground squir­rel pop­u­la­tion peaks occur every four to six years. The pop­u­la­tion grows from eight squir­rels per acre to as many as 30 squir­rels per acre.

Franklin's ground squir­rels en­counter many preda­tors, in­clud­ing the red-tailed hawk, red fox, bad­ger, coy­ote, striped skunk, mink, and long-tailed weasel (Baker, 1983).

Con­trib­u­tors

Eric Olson (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Jones, Jr., J. K. and E. C. Bir­ney. 1988. Hand­book of Mam­mals of the North-Cen­tral States. Univ. of Minn. Press, Min­neapo­lis.

Nowak, R. M. 1991. Walker's Mam­mals of the World, The Johns Hop­kins Press.

Baker, R. 1983. Michi­gan Mam­mals. MSU Press.

Pergams, O. March 29, 2002. "Franklin's Ground Squir­rel Con­ser­va­tion Page" (On-line). Ac­cessed Au­gust 23, 2002 at http://​icarus.​uic.​edu/​~op­er­ga1/fgs.​html.