They’re not gophers.
Those prairie rodents that dig burrows, attract predators and snack on farmers’ crops are Richardson’s ground squirrels.
Gail Michener, a biologist with 30 years of research on the ubiquitous prairie mammals, makes the point clearly in her lectures.
“The name gopher has become very well entrenched in every day usage,” she said in a Nov. 30 lecture at the University of Lethbridge.
“But the animal that you’re familiar with … is the Richardson’s ground squirrel.”
Michener said there are 25 species of ground squirrels in North America and they share common characteristics of hibernation, foraging above ground during the day and going underground for sleep and protection.
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Other members of the squirrel family include chipmunks, prairie dogs, marmots and woodchucks.
In contrast, there is only one gopher species in Alberta, the pocket gopher.
“They have an entirely different lifestyle,” said Michener. “They’re non-hibernators so they are active year round. They are root eaters, so they forage below ground.… The rare occasions they do come above ground, it’s at night.”
Gophers close up their holes when they go back underground, leaving mounds of freshly dug soil.
Michener found no audience response to her query about the identity of Richardson, the person for whom the familiar prairie ground squirrels are named.
Sir John Richardson was an explorer, surgeon and naturalist who travelled with the first two Franklin expeditions that were tasked with finding the Northwest Passage.
He was not aboard Franklin‘s third ill-fated expedition that was lost in 1845.
Michener said Richardson came in contact with ground squirrels on one of the expedition’s cross-country treks from Hudson’s Bay to the Arctic Ocean, and sent specimens to the British Museum in 1820.
