The complicated life of a ground squirrel

VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY

We don’t have tree squirrels in Huntington Beach. We have only the

California ground squirrel (Spermophilis beecheyi). Although these

squirrels will climb trees to get food, they dig burrows to live in,

a habit that places them in conflict with people. The County of

Orange is now poisoning squirrels along the Santa Ana River.

These squirrels are not in short supply. Often called Beechey’s

ground squirrel, after English naval officer and explorer Frederick

William Beechey, the species is widely spread along the Pacific coast

from northern Baja to central Washington.

Females have up to 15 young in a litter here in the southern part

of their range. Males are active only during mating season and are

real couch potatoes the rest of the year. They go into a dormant

state called estivation in late summer. This resting state merges

right into winter hibernation. Their heart rate falls to one-tenth of

normal, and their respiration falls to one breath every few minutes.

They wake up every few days to eat from their food stores, then go

right back to sleep. Our boys did pretty much the same thing during

their teen years.

Males save their energy for mating season, when they chase females

tirelessly. It’s worth their time, because females will mate with

more than one male and will mate more than one time with any

individual male. Litters generally have multiple fathers. The young

squirrels remain in the burrows until they are 2 months old. Even as

adults, they rarely venture more than 100 feet from their burrows.

Adult female squirrels, like human females, don’t have the luxury

of sleeping all the time because they have the responsibility of

rearing the family of very active juveniles. But by late fall, the

female is worn out and also goes into hibernation, leaving the young

squirrels to scamper around and get into trouble all on their own.

And they do get into trouble, by human standards. These darling

babies will eat anything they come across -- new shoots, seeds,

roots, bark, entire plants, insects, caterpillars, bird eggs and even

carrion. Ground squirrels have devastated the new plantings at the

Shipley Nature Center.

They also dig. They will burrow under concrete and asphalt, and

that is where they really get into conflict with humans. Squirrels

dig burrows that extend for 5 to 35 feet for single-opening burrows.

Colonies with multiple entrances can extend for more than 700 feet

laterally and nearly 30 feet deep with many branches. These guys are

real engineers. Although they dig mainly in spring, they maintain

their burrows year-round.

California ground squirrels are considered varmints by the

California Department of Fish and Game. With a valid hunting license,

those who are so inclined can shoot as many as they like, at any time

of year where it is legal to discharge firearms. That does not

include the Bosla Chica or anywhere in the city of Huntington Beach.

And that brings us to the sticky subject of what to do about those

cute little buggers when they become pests. Ground squirrels prefer

to dig their burrow entrances on slopes. Our flood control channels

provide perfect slopes from the squirrels’ point of view.

In 1983, a flood-control levy in Huntington Beach failed, possibly

because it was riddled with ground squirrel burrows. To prevent a

repeat of this, and to protect the expensive infrastructure of the

concrete-lined Santa Ana River channel, the County of Orange has

hired a pest-control company to poison the squirrels that live there.

Anaheim-based Pest Options was hired to use diphacinone (an

anti-coagulating agent similar to warfarin) to poison the squirrels.

Unfortunately, they left the bait out in the open, where other

wildlife and pets could get it. As of last week, Pest Options was

ordered by the Orange County Agricultural Commission to place the

bait in boxes that are designed to prevent cats and dogs from

inadvertent poisoning.

We think it is very sad that our society finds it necessary to

poison wildlife. But faced with a choice of losing a flood-control

levy or losing a few ground squirrels, we have to use some common

sense and value human homes over squirrels. If the squirrels are to

be poisoned, then the use of bait boxes is a step forward, because it

may help protect other wildlife and pets from being poisoned.

But we have to question why dogs and cats were able to get to the

open bait. Dogs and cats should not be allowed to run loose in an

urban environment under any circumstances. Dogs running off leashes

or off trails on long leashes are an invitation to harassing

wildlife. This should not be permitted.

We hope our society will learn to coexist with the ground

squirrels and not drive them to extinction. We can’t help but think

about the Carolina parakeet, once a thriving bird on the East Coast,

now extinct because its habits conflicted with the interests of early

settlers. Prairie dogs, a burrowing colonial rodent similar to ground

squirrels, once numbered in the millions. They were treated as

varmints and hunted without restriction. Now, some prairie-dog

species are endangered.

We need to place some brakes on our control measures. If we don’t

learn to coexist with wildlife, we’ll lose it.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at vicleipzig@aol.com.