|
Book your LIONSROCK accommodation here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ground Squirrel
|
Scientific name:
|
Xerus Inauris
|
|
Body lengths:
|
Males: 45 cm
Females: 44 cm
|
|
Weight:
|
Males: 650 g
Females: 600 g
|
|
Gestation period:
|
42-49 days
|
|
|
|
Appearance
Various shades of cinnamon brown; white on the lower limbs, under-parts and sides f the neck. There is a white stripe along the flanks, outlined with darker cinnamon; alternating dark and light stripes run along the bushy tail (in striped tree squirrels there are no stripes on the tail). Each hair on the tail has two black bands (the mountain ground squirrel has three bands). The eyes are larger and ringed with white, the ears are very small. The incisor teeth are white (yellow in mountain ground squirrels). The hair on the body, head and limbs is short and bristly. There are your digits on the forefeet five on the hind, all with long, sharp claws for digging. Females have two pairs of mammae on the belly.
Behavior
Active during the day, emerging from the burrow bout an hour after sunrise in summer, half an hour later in winter. Less active in windy and wet weather, and stays underground during sand storms. Sunbathes in cold weather, in hot weather lies spreadeagled in the shade and flicks sand onto its back. The long bushy tail is used as a sunshade, which saves 5% of the energy needed to prevent overheating. Climbing is limited to cautious clambering into low bushes.
Shelters in burrows up to about 80 cm deep. It digs its own burrows, takes over or shares those of suricates and yellow mongooses, or takes over and extends whistling rat warrens. Burrows are interconnected into warrens which are continually added to and modified, and often lie under low mounds of excavated soil. Dry grass is gathered to make nests.
Ground squirrels live in colonies of up to 30, which share warren. Colonies consist of females and their young, with a single dominant individual most active in chasing away strangers. The dominant female may displace others from food with an open-mouthed threat. Nose-to-nose and anal sniffing are used for recognition. Allogrooming, especially between mothers and their young, is common. There may be fights, in which they tail flick and snarl, over food, and when males visit a colony. Youngsters and sub-adults play chase and play fight, giving “tschip-tschip” calls.
Colonies have home ranges with approximately double in size in winter and spring, when food is scarce. They scent mark with urine, by pressing their anal regions onto the ground, and by rubbing the sides of the muzzle on stones near burrow entrance. Females stay in the colony they were born in; young males disperse as yearlings in late summer. Males visit female groups for mating, stay temporarily and then move in to another colony.
Ground squirrels are extremely alert and vigilant; while above ground they spend 8-14% of their time obviously on the lookout for danger. The alarm signal is a sharp flicking of the tail with its hair erected, and a high-pitched whistle. They squeal-scream when fleeing and baldy frightened. Jackals are allowed to approach to with in 5m if the squirrel is near its burrow. Snakes are mobbed and harassed with sideways flicks of the tail until they leave the area. Ground squirrels respond to the alarm calls of birds. They tolerate suricates and yellow mongooses, but drive off slender mongooses. At picnic sites ground squirrels become very tame and easy to observe.
Reproduction
Breed throughout the year, perhaps at different times in different places; mating in October in the Kalahari. Gestation 42-49 days; litters of 1-4, usually 2. Eyes open at 35 days, first emerges from burrows after 40 days. Females usually have one litter per year; two if rainfall is exceptionally good. They are preyed on by large raptors, jackals, cats and foxes. Yellow mongooses attack sick or injured ground squirrels.
Diet
Takes a very wide range of vegetable foods: leaves, flowers and seeds, the fruits and runners of tsama melons, berries, bulbs in winter, “naba” truffles in mid-winter. Also eats insects, especially termits.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bank account name:
LIONSROCK PARK
Bank and Code:
First National Bank - South Africa FNB-230133
Account No: 62165825583
|
|
|
|
|
|
