Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel
From Jen Marie
Though listed as common by ODNR, most people don't realize that Ohio is home to a native ground squirrel. The thirteen-lined ground squirrel can be found mainly in the western half of the state, in open short and mid- grass prairies, cemeteries, golf courses, and other sites with expanses of mowed grass.
Fun fact: Unlike some animals that go into periods of winter inactivity, ground squirrels are true hibernators. This hibernation process starts in late summer or fall when they begin fattening up for winter. A ground squirrel nearly doubles its weight during fall feeding. Since no food is eaten while hibernating, this is key to survival. Ground squirrels lose between one-third and one-half of their weight during hibernation. Body temperature drops from a range of 86 to 106 degrees to 37 degrees. Their heartbeat falls from 200 to 300 beats per minute to a rate as low as five beats per minute. Breathing drops from a rate of 50 times per minute to four times per minute.
21 replies
Handsome devil
Great pics and fun facts! 11/10
I've been a bit overwhelmed with squirrel in real life the last 2 weeks, so I wanted something to bring a little appreciation for them back to me! 😇
Is there an air or a water squirrel?
Air Squirrel
Water Squirrel
Squirrels are split into ground squirrels and tree squirrels. Both spend time on the ground, but ground squirrels live underground in burrows and tree squirrels live in trees.
Ground squirrels can be small, like chipmunks and prarie dogs, but they also include large marmots and groundhogs/woodchucks.
Anything in family Sciuridae is a squirrel, almost 300 species.
Flying squirrel species can't truly fly, but they do get major air. When they get loose in the clinic they are total chaos!
Most tree and ground squirrels can swim, but most aren't great at it, so they don't do it often.
This person squirrels
That means a lot, coming from a squirrel.
Frog Squirrel
Avatar universe sure has some funky animals! 😀
Fun fact Goldy Gopher is based on the 13 lined ground squirrel.
Go Gophers!!!
That is a fun fact!
I learned of the Golden Gophers one of the first times I met my father-in-law. He had a stroke and couldn't do much physically, so he watched a lot of sports and soccer/football was always on, so that became his sport of choice. I was hanging out with him a bit and was like "who the heck are the Golden Gophers?!"
He's gone now, but whenever the Golden Gophers pop up somewhere it makes me think of him. I'll have to look up more about "the gopher state" motto; that sounds like an interesting history.
Edit: That was some very interesting history!
In school, this period of time felt largely skipped over and all I remember is financial collapses due to "land speculation and bank failures," which naturally sound boring to a 16 year old me. From reading the wiki on the Panic of 1857 and this article from the Minnesota Historical Society, that really showed me a ton of reason the country was getting so tense about plenty of other things than slavery (though from the wiki, it sounds like the South used this panic to further reinforce slavery) and Minnesota sounded especially hurt, only to have the near literal last bit of money they had to railroad tycoons which immediately went broke, causing the citizens to rebuild the state from the ashes with their own hands and fortitude. Absolutely nuts!
As a Minnesotan and gopher alumni I am glad we're interesting
Minnesota has Sax-Zim Bog, the great folks at The Raptor Center, and the International Owl Center - I love Minnesota and want to visit!
Come visit!!! I would say not the winter if you want to be outdoors. Unless you want to cross country ski then come in the winter
The Festival of Owls is in March, which I want to attend at some point. The International Owl Center is in the beginning phases of building what looks to be an absolutely beautiful facility, so I'd come back to check that out once completed also.
My top travel priority is to see the Scottish Owl Centre, as I'm worried about its future. The owners are looking to retire, so if no one wants to take over the world's largest owl collection, hoo knows what will happen to it. I just got my passport, so now I gotta find the time and cash!
I haven't been to either. The festival of owls seems like fun and that area is super nice. I haven't been to Houston specifically but that general area.
I went to the Raptor center when I was younger.
I've looked at their posts of the festival for the last few years and it seems like a nice mix of silly and fun stuff and serious recognition for those working with owls. It's in an old store front, but they announced their land purchase and facility design a few months back and I'm so happy for them.
Someone from The Raptor Center gave a lecture at our state rehab conference last November and that was fun for me after seeing so many posts of theirs. It felt like seeing a real owl celebrity 😁