Kate Norland
Endangered Species Report: Franklin’s Ground Squirrel
100 years ago, there were 100,000 Franklin’s ground squirrels in Illinois. But just as the prairie has vanished over the years, so too have the animals that thrived on the rich ecosystem it fostered—including the Franklin’s ground squirrel, or Spermophilus franklinii.
This small, grayish-brown squirrel, weighing about a pound, burrows in medium and tall prairie grass and feeds on insects, green plants, seeds, fruit, amphibians, bird eggs, and carrion. Its life span is about 24 months, 16 of which are spent in hibernation with a body temperature almost as low as 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Its natural predators are the red-tailed hawk, the red fox, the badger, the coyote, the striped skunk, the mink, and the long-tailed weasel.[1]
But the greatest threat to the Franklin’s ground squirrel has come from homo sapiens in two separate ways. First, humans destroyed the prairie by converting it to farmland, so the squirrel could no longer burrow. It lost its habitat. We all know that “if you build it, they will come,” but we forget that the corollary is also true: “If you take it away, they will leave.” With less than one-tenth of 1% of prairie land remaining in Illinois, the Franklin’s ground squirrel has sought shelter in the relatively undisturbed patches sometimes found in graveyards or along train tracks[2].
But we did not content ourselves with destroying the squirrel’s habitat—rather, we proceeded to attack it directly out of fear that it was damaging crops. In the late 1800’s, the government was so concerned about this problem that it offered 10 cents to anyone who could produce a .convincing Franklin’s ground squirrel pelt (Smith, Chicago Sun Times).
Some still subscribe to the view that this squirrel is a crop-killer; perhaps this explains the long-lived reluctance to grant it endangered species status in Illinois, even though it has been all but exterminated. The first major attempt to include Franklin’s ground squirrel in the endangered species category came in late December of 1999 and was undertaken by Dennis Nyberg and Oliver Pergrams of UIC. The idea was rejected, even though 14 states (including many neighbors of Illinois) had already listed it in their own endangered species registries[3].
Finally, on February 20th of 2004, the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board gave the Franklin’s ground squirrel “threatened status” which entails the same protection as endangerment. This was a critical decision—Illinois only updates its list every 5 years, so if this opportunity had been missed, the squirrel may have become extinct before ever having been listed as endangered[4].
What does it mean, for the Franklin’s ground squirrel itself, to be classified as threatened? This new status entails, on the one hand, penalties for those who harm the squirrel, and, on the other hand, it requires the state to come up with a proactive conservation plan to rehabilitate the threatened species[5].
The problem is that, though the bounty placed on the squirrel’s head didn’t help matters, the real reason the Franklin’s ground squirrel is under threat is the destruction of its habitat—and tall grass prairies won’t be rebounding any time soon. The important thing is to restore prairie wherever possible—parks, backyards—so that the squirrel has a place to burrow and make its home.
[1]Squirrel species has no place to run
Chicago Sun Times, February 15, 2004, Zay N. Smith
[2]What Happened to the Franklin's Ground Squirrel?
JasonMartinCenter for Wildlife Ecology
[3]INHS Reports January-Februaury 1999
Franklin's Ground Squirrel: An Increasingly Rare Prairie Mammal
Joyce E. Hofmann, Center for Biodiversity
[4]
[5]WILDLIFE
(520ILCS10/) Illinois Endangered Species Protection Act