Sunday, April 3, 2011
Away: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Drove back home to Calgary
It was one of those blue Alberta days, the high-pressure, semi-euphoric air mass finally giving us an uplift. The winter dust and grime didn’t look so thick today.
Best of all, the little gophers, aka prairie dogs, Richardson’s ground squirrels, were standing by the road here and there. I didn’t see many, but there were a few between Edmonton and Red Deer.
The prairie dog life cycle includes a lot of time spent underground: all winter, much of the summer and fall, and at night.
Dr. Gail Michener at the University of Lethbridge has studied them closely. One of her many interesting findings about these little guys is that the dates of starting and ending hibernation depend on age (juvenile or adult) and gender. The boys and girls are not all upstairs at the same time, though of course there is some overlap of they would be the Shakers of the animal kingdom.
Here’s a link to Dr. Michener’s explanation of the yearly cycle of the Richardson’s ground squirrel.
jill