| Franklin's ground squirrel | |
|---|---|
| In Alberta, Canada | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Sciuridae |
| Subfamily: | Xerinae |
| Tribe: | Marmotini |
| Genus: | Poliocitellus Howell, 1938 |
| Species: | P. franklinii |
| Binomial name | |
| Poliocitellus franklinii (Sabine, 1822) |
|
Franklin's ground squirrel (Poliocitellus 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 a 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.
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.[2] It was formerly placed in the large ground squirrel genus Spermophilus, in its own subgenus, Poliocitellus,[3][4] but since DNA sequencing of the cytochrome b gene has shown Spermophilus to be paraphyletic it is now placed in its own genus.[3][4][5] Franklin's ground squirrel is suggested to be sister to a clade containing not only the Mohave, round-tailed, spotted, and Perote ground squirrels (genus Xerospermophilus), but the prairie dogs as well.[3][4] There are no commonly-recognized subspecies.[2]