Specimens of Franklin\u27s ground squirrel have been obtained in several localities in St. Louis County, Minnesota. The movement of this prairie-dwelling rodent into the montane coniferous forest region of northeastern Minnesota may be related to recent man-made changes in the habitat

Robins, Jerome D.

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University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM): Digital Well

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science Volume 37 Number 1 Article 9 1970 Movement of Franklin's Ground Squirrel Into Northeastern Minnesota Jerome D. Robins University of Kansas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/jmas  Part of the Zoology Commons Recommended Citation Robins, J. D. (1970). Movement of Franklin's Ground Squirrel Into Northeastern Minnesota. Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science, Vol. 37 No.1, 30-31. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/jmas/vol37/iss1/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science by an authorized editor of University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well. For more information, please contact skulann@morris.umn.edu. Acknowledgments The author wishes to thank Dr. Donald E. Gilbertson for very substantial assistance, particularly in field as-pects of this study, and Dr. Glen E. Bartsch for technical assistance. The study was supported by a grant from the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota. References BOURNS, T. K. R. 1963. Larva1 trematodes parasitizing Lymnea stagnalis appressa Say in Ontario with em-phasis on multiple infections. Canad. 1. Zoo/. 41 :937-941. CORT, W. W. 1950. Studies on schistosome de1matitis. XI. Status of knowledge after more than twenty years. Amer. four. Hyg. 52(3):251-307. CoRT, W. W., AMEEL, D. J., and OLIVIER, Lorns. 1944. An experimental study of the development of Schisto-somatium douthitti (Cort, 1914) in its intermediate host. J our. Parasitol. 30: 1-17. CORT, W. W. , HUSSEY, KATHLEEN L., and AMEEL, DONALD J. 1960. Seasonal fluctuations in larval tre-matode infections in Stagnicola emarginata angulata from Phragmites Flats on Douglas Lake. Proceedings of the Helminthological Society of Washington. 27: 11-13. CoRT, W.W., McMULLEN, D. B., and BRACKETT, STER-LING. 1937. Ecological studies on the cercariae in Stagnicola emarginata angulata (Sowerby) in the Douglas Lake region Michigan. lour. Parasitol. 23: 504-532. 1939. A study of larval trematode infections in Heli-soma campanulato smithii (Baker) in the Douglas Lake region, Michigan. lour. Parasitol. 25: 19-22. CORT, W. W., and OLIVIER, Lours. 1943. The develop-ment of the sporocysts of a schistosome, Cercaria stag-nicolae Talbot. lour. Parasitol. 29: 164-176. ELLIOTT, A. M. 1942. The present status of "swimmer's itch" in northern Minnesota. Proc. Minnesota Acad. Sci. 10: 15-16. HOFFMAN, GLENN L. 1958. Experimental studies on the cercaria and metacercaria of a strigeoid trematode, Posthodiplostomum minirnum. Exper. Parasit. 7:23-50. Movement of Franklin's Ground Squirrel Into Northeastern Minnesota JEROME D. ROBINS* ABSTRACT - Specimens of Franklin's ground squirrel have been obtained in several localities in St. Louis County, Minnesota. The movement of this prairie-dwelling rodent into the mantane coniferous forest region of northeastern Minnesota may be related ta recent man-made changes in the habitat. Franklin's ground squirrels (Spermophilus franklinii) inhabit the tall grass and mixed grass prairies of North America from Kansas and Missouri on the south, and Indiana on the east, north through Minnesota and the Dakotas to east-central Alberta, Canada (Howell, 1938; Hall and Kelson, 1959). In Minnesota (Gunderson and Beer, 1953) Franklin's ground squirrels are found pri-marily south and west of the montane coniferous forest. The southern and western half of Minnesota was grown to tall grass prairie prior to cultivation (Shelford, 1963: 30 ,:, JEROME D. ROBINS, a native of Duluth, Minn., re-ceived the B.A. degree from the University of Minnesota in 1964 and the M.A. from Western Michigan University in 1967. He is a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas and has worked with the Museum of Natural History at that institution. 330) and probably presented ideal conditions for Frank-lin's ground squirrels. The northeastern portion of Minnesota is classified by Shelford (1963: 121) as originally having a southern arm of montane coniferous forest vegetation (pine-hem-lock faciation). A zone of hardwood forest extending from the northwest to southeast corners of the state sep-arated the coniferous and prairie elements (Upham, 1884). A similar distribution of Franklin's ground squir~ rel exists in Wisconsin (Jackson, 1961), where it ap-pears to be limited to the southern and western part of the state below the "tension zone" of Curtis (1959: 20), which divides the state into prairie and boreal regions. De Vos (1964) recently reviewed range changes of mammals in the Great Lakes region. He reported that the prairie dwelling thirteen-lined ground squirrel (S. tridecemlineatus) had expanded its range fairly rapidly The Minnesota Academy of Science m an easterly amt northerly direction in Minnesota to Duluth during this century. Gunderson and Beer ( 1953) have likewise reported the presence of thirteen-lined ground squirrels as far east in Minnesota as Duluth. Heretofore there has been no evidence of similar move-ment on the part of the closely related prairie dwelling Franklin's ground squirrel. The presently known north-easternmost distribution of Franklin's ground squirrel in Minnesota is from Anoka and Sherburne counties just north of Minneapolis, northwest to Cass County in the center of the state, and from there north to Lake of the Woods County on the northern border (Gunderson and Beer, 1953). On two occasions during July and August of 1965 this writer observed several Franklin's ground squirrels in the roadside rest area at Saginaw, in St. Louis County, Minnesota. As their presence in this part of the state was unknown (Gunderson and Beer, 1953; De Vos, 1964), it was surmised that they may have been artificially in-troduced from farther west. No specimens were collected. Saginaw is about 12 miles northwest of Duluth and lo-cated on U.S. Highway 2, a major east-west route across northern Minnesota. In August 1970 the writer was again in the area and took one male (KU - 124816: length, 325 mm; tail , 127 mm ; hind foot, 49 mm; ear 15 mm; weight, 253.3 grams) and two females (KU - 124817: 327 mm; 122 mm; 50 mm; 15 mm; 247.7 g and KU -124818: (324 mm]; [105 mm]; 52 mm; 15 mm; 342.4 g) which are in the collection at the Museum of Natural History at The University of Kansas . Three additional specimens from St. Louis County are in the collection at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. One male was col-lected in October, 1966, at Hibbing (UMD - 632: 350 mm; 120 mm; 50 mm; 7 mm; 299.6 g) which is near the east-central border of the county. A second specimen (UMD - 792: 264 mm; 86 mm; 32 mm ; 6 mm; no weight or sex) was obtained in August of 1967 at Mead-owlands, about 32 miles northwest of Duluth. The third specimen (UMD - uncatalogued) was taken on 10 June 1970 by Milton Sundquist at his home on the western edge of Duluth, where these rodents are considered com-mon pests by the local residents. One Franklin ground squirrel was observed in the Sundquist yard in August 1970. Sundquist (in litt . ) first noticed them near his home in the spring of 1968, when six individuals were destroyed. There are no published observations of Frank-lin's ground squirrel between St. Louis County and Cass, Sherburne, or Anoka counties. However, this writer found them to be numerous in the mid-1960's in several public campgrounds on the west side of Lake Winnibigoshish and around Cut-Foot Sioux Lake in Itasca County, con-siderably west of Duluth. Journal of, Volume Thirty-seven, No. 1, 1970-1971 SCI ENCE MUSEUM Although Franklin's ground squirrels are residents of prairies, they seem to prefer habitats on the edges of the prairies or, conversely, on the edges of forests. Accord-ing to Gunderson and Beer (1953) in Minnesota they are found in brushy fields or near the edges of woods. The new records in St. Louis County extend the known range about 120 miles, which is about 160 miles into the montane coniferous forest region delineated by Shelford (1963 ). Due to extensive modification of the coniferous forest element through farming, lumbering, and fires, much of northeastern Minnesota is now in successional stages dominated by quaking aspen (Populus tremu-loides) and white birch (Betula papyri/era). Thus, much edge habitat is available for colonization and fur-ther range expansion seems likely in northeastern Min-nesota and possibly northern Wisconsin. Acknowledgments Pershing B. Hofslund and Milton Sundquist were helpful in providing information on Franklin's ground squirrel in Minnesota. Richard F. Johnston kindly re-viewed the manuscript. References CURTIS, J. T. 1959. The vegetation of Wisconsin. Univ. Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin. 657 p . DE Vos, A. 1964. Range changes of mammals in the Great Lakes region. Amer. Midi. Nat., 71: 210-231. GUNDERSON, H. L. and J. R. BEER. 1953. The mam-mals of Minnesota. Minn. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Min-nesota. Occas. Pap. No. 6. 190 p. HALL, E. R. and K. R . KELSON. 1959. The mammals of No1th America. The Ronald Press Co., New York. Vol. 1, 546 p. HOWELL, A. H. 1938. Revision of the North American ground squirrels. No. Amer. Fauna. No. 56. U. S. Dept. Agric. Washington, D.C. 256 p. JACKSON, H. H. T. 1961. Mamma1s of Wisconsin. Univ. Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin. 504 p. SHELFORD, V. E . 1963. The ecology of North America. Univ. Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois. 610 p. UPHAM, W. 1884. Catalogue of the flora of Minnesota. Minn. Geol. Nat. Hist. Survey, Pt. VI of annual re-port for 1883. Johnson, Smith, and Harrison, Minne-apolis, Minnesota. 193 p. 31 

Movement of Franklin\u27s Ground Squirrel Into Northeastern Minnesota

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Movement of Franklin\u27s Ground Squirrel Into Northeastern Minnesota

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