PS 1-3 - Burrowing habits of the Northern Idaho ground squirrel (Urocitellus brunneus)

Monday, August 12, 2019
Exhibit Hall, Kentucky International Convention Center
Autumn Rae Herrington1, Courtney J Conway2, Kerri T. Vierling3, Deo Lachman4 and Austin Allison3, (1)Fish and Widlife Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, (2)U.S. Geological Survey, Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Moscow, ID, (3)Department of Fish and Wildlife Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, (4)Fish and wildlife services, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID
Background/Question/Methods

The Northern Idaho ground squirrel (Urocitellus brunneus) is a federally threatened species that is only found in Adams and Valley counties Idaho. Little is known about the burrowing habits of this species.The objective of my study was to quantify the activity range of individual NIDGS as well as determine the extent of burrow re-use and sharing. Future management decisions could benefit from knowing how often NIDGS reuse the same burrow and share burrows. If NIDGS are using the same burrows, then fleas or disease could quickly be spread among the population due to increased interaction rates.

In this study, I used radio telemetry to track the locations of nightly resting and mid-day burrow use of 9 Northern Idaho ground squirrels that were divided between two study sites in Bear, Idaho. I located individuals at sunrise, mid-morning, and sunset over a 27-day period, between June and July of 2018. I analyzed the space use of each individual squirrel by creating minimum convex polygons (MCP) from the telemetry GPS points; The number of burrow and sighted locations per individual varied from 5 to 40.

Results/Conclusions

I found that the MCP for an individual NIDGS ranged from 3 to 21,796 square meters with an average of 3,710 square meters. The standard deviation was 6859.6 square meters. This large range of MCPs implies that individual Northern Idaho ground squirrels can vary greatly in how they use space. My results showed that all 9 Northern Idaho ground squirrels reused at least one of their burrows. Additionally, 2 of the 9 Northern Idaho ground squirrels also used other individuals’ burrows.This could indicate that disease and fleas, if introduced to the population, would quickly spread among the population through shared burrow use. Future studies could benefit from a larger sample size to allow for a more comprehensive understanding of Northern Idaho ground squirrels’ space use and burrowing habits. Another potential avenue for future research could be exploring how activity ranges vary between males and females.