{"id":26198,"date":"2014-08-27T07:19:54","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T13:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=26198"},"modified":"2014-08-27T12:30:52","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T18:30:52","slug":"ground-squirrels-some-loveem-some-well-they-really-dont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/ground-squirrels-some-loveem-some-well-they-really-dont\/","title":{"rendered":"Ground Squirrels – Some Love’em, Some… Well, They Really Don’t!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In much of their western habitat ground squirrels are a vital link in the food chain.\u00a0 Carnivores love them but ranchers and farmers have a decidedly different view.\u00a0 There are many species and almost as many common names for them but most simply call them gophers, though that name is more accurately applied to the pocket gophers.<\/p>\n

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\u00a01\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4tc <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Uinta Ground Squirrel is ubiquitous in parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and Montana (here in northern Utah many call them potguts) but I most often encounter them in the Centennial Valley of southwest Montana where they seem to be everywhere.\u00a0 In fact, they’re indirectly\u00a0part of the reason I spend so much time in the area as I love to photograph the birds of prey in the valley and these rodents are a\u00a0significant part of their diet.\u00a0 I photographed this one in that area exactly a month ago.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a01\/2000, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4tc<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I enjoy ground squirrels for a variety of other reasons – they’re gregarious, playful and just plain interesting to watch.\u00a0 This stretched-out vertical\u00a0pose is typical for them as they try to peer over the grasses near their burrows.<\/p>\n

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\u00a01\/250, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon Rebel XTi, Canon EF100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS USM @ 400 mm<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

But ranchers and farmers don’t much appreciate “gophers” for a variety of reasons.\u00a0 There can be hundreds of them in just an acre or two and they\u00a0often do a tremendous amount of crop damage, especially to emerging\u00a0young shoots\u00a0of wheat and barley.\u00a0 Their burrows and dirt mounds\u00a0are hard on\u00a0expensive farm equipment and can be damaging to buildings they burrow under.\u00a0\u00a0Their burrows also cause leg injuries to livestock.\u00a0 It can be very difficult to keep them out of stored grain which they contaminate with their droppings.\u00a0\u00a0I photographed this Richardson’s Ground Squirrel on our\u00a0Montana family farm several years ago as it was feeding on barley in an auger tube coming out of a granary.<\/p>\n

So the relationship of farmers, ranchers and ground squirrels is a contentious one that often results in “gopher control”.\u00a0 As a kid growing up on the farm in the 50’s and 60’s\u00a0one of my\u00a0“jobs” was to shoot gophers and I’ll admit that I did it with enthusiasm (there was a 1 cent per tail bounty…).\u00a0\u00a0 If I had stayed on the farm (something that almost happened) I’d probably still be shooting them or controlling them in some other manner.\u00a0 Doing so is hard for me to imagine today but we’re all a product of our\u00a0upbringing and environment to some degree and if they threatened my\u00a0farm and my livelihood… well, you get the picture.<\/p>\n

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Lima, Montana is adjacent to the Centennial Valley (and very close to where\u00a0the first two images in this post were taken).\u00a0 For the past 20 years Lima\u00a0has sponsored an annual\u00a0“gopher fest” – a contest with prizes for those who can shoot the most gophers (I took this photo near the main intersection of town\u00a0on May 29th of this year).\u00a0 Winners are determined by a\u00a0“tail count”. \u00a0 The purpose of the contest is two-fold –\u00a0to raise money for\u00a0maintenance of the town swimming pool and to control gopher populations.\u00a0 More on the contest can be found here<\/a> if you’re interested.<\/p>\n