Franklin's Ground Squirrel

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Franklin's Ground Squirrel
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae
Genus: Spermophilus
Species: S. franklinii
Binomial name
Spermophilus franklinii
Sabine, 1822

Franklin's Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus franklinii) is a species native to tallgrass American prairie, from Canada to the northcentral United States. The species hibernates from early fall to spring, and bears a litter of 6-8 pups at this time. The species is not choosy in its diet, eschewing the typical herbivorous diet of most squirrels when it can find insects, eggs, young birds, and fruits, seeds, and nuts when they are available.

Due to the destruction of prairie, the populations of Franklin's ground squirrel have dwindled, approaching levels of concern. However, the species is prolific, and locally abundant.

[edit] Taxonomy

Franklin's Ground Squirrel was first described by Joseph Sabine in 1822, who named it in honor of the British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin.[1] It is typically placed in its own subgenus, Poliocitellus,[2][3] and there are no commonly-recognized subspecies.[1]

DNA sequencing of the cytochrome b gene has shown Spermophilus to be paraphyletic; in particular, Franklin's Ground Squirrel is suggested to be sister to a clade containing not only the Mohave, Round-tailed, Spotted, and Perote Ground Squirrels, but the prairie dogs as well.[2][3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Andrea C. Ostroff and Elmer J. Finck (30 July 2003). "Spermophilus franklinii". Mammalian Species 724. American Society of Mammalogists. 
  2. ^ a b Matthew D. Herron, Todd A. Castoe, and Christopher L. Parkinson (2004). "Sciurid phylogeny and the paraphyly of Holarctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 31: 1015. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2003.09.015. 
  3. ^ a b Richard G. Harrison, Steven M. Bogdanowicz, Robert S. Hoffmann, Eric Yensen, and Paul W. Sherman (September 2003). "Phylogeny and Evolutionary History of the Ground Squirrels (Rodentia: Marmotinae)". Journal of Mammalian Evolution 10 (3). 
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