The coats of birds and mammals typically vary through their depth in structure, insulation and optical qualities. Physical models predict that such variation can substantially affect the solar heat load acquired by an animal. This study quantifies the consequences of complex coat structure for solar heat gain in the rock squirrel (Spermophilus variegatus (Erxleben, 1777)), a species normally ex...

Plague is a virulent infectious disease in China. In this study, '3S' technology was used to perform spatial autocorrelation analysis and spatial interpolation analysis for Spermophilus dauricus (S. Dauricus, a species of ground squirrel) captured in Manchuria City in 2015. The results were visually inspected. During the two-month (May to July) plague surveillance in 2015, 198 S. dauricus indiv...

Richardson's Ground Squirrel is one of the most economically harmful rodents in east central Alberta. In an effort to develop an effective, safe, economical and practical method of long-term population control over large areas, experimental f i e l d t e s t i n g was begun in 1970 to evaluate a variety of potential control techniques. Although tests w i t h a machine b a i t applicator proved ...

Extensive research has been conducted on the role of glucocorticoids in regulating growth, mobilizing energy, responding to stressors and modulating learning and memory. However, little is known about the production of corticoids during early development in free-living animals, particularly during sensitive periods of acquisition of important behaviors. In a four-year study of Belding's ground ...

The study describes the daily activity of the European ground squirrel in an experimental plot, situated in a heavily grazed pasture near the town of Knezha, Northwestern Bulgaria. Above ground activity was recorded with a visual scanning procedure in summer and autumn of 2006. In summer animals emerged on an average 1.94 h after the civil twilight at dawn and the active period lasted about 11 ...

I conducted afield experiment to examine the use of body fat as an energy reserve by juvenile female Belding's ground squirrels, Spermophilus beldingi, prior to hibernation. Squirrels were divided into two groups: the squirrels in one group had their foraging times restricted by being placed in a cage forpart of each day for four consecutive days (deprived group), and the squirrels in the other...

To maximize fitness, organisms must optimally allocate resources to reproduction, daily metabolic maintenance, and survival. We examined multiple years of live-trapping and observational data from a known-aged population of female Columbian ground squirrels, Spermophilus columbianus (Ord, 1815), to determine the influences of stored resources and daily resource income on the reproductive invest...