Arctic Ground Squirrels must cope with a harsh environment that offers long, cold winters, strong winds, a short growing season, permafrost, poor drainage, and limited cover. The squirrels are, by necessity, dormant for seven months each year. Newborns must grow to adult size over the short Arctic spring and summer. By six weeks of age, they are ready to emerge from the underground nest. They reach 80 percent of their adult weight within a month of emergence, and by the middle of September attain prehibernation weights of 600-700 g. Like other ground squirrels, Arctic Ground Squirrels feed on a variety of plants, berries, seeds, and leaves, insects, and carrion.

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Mammal Species of the World

In Eurasia distributed in NE Siberia, from Lena River, Verhoyanskoe and Kolymskoe Highlands, Chukotka, and Kamchatka. From Kolyma River to Arctic and Pacific Oceans; in south range does not reach Magadan (Gromov and Erbaeva, 1995). According to Serdyuk (1986) current area of occupancy is above 2 million sq. km, but it distributed sporadically and inhabited zones interchange with wide uninhabited places. There is a big isolated population at western border of the range, in Lena River Basin (Panteleev, 1998). In Yakutia here are two isolated populations: on Yana River, and on headstream of Indigirka River (Vinokurov et al., 1982). The range is expanding (Serdyuk, 1986).

In North America, from Alaska east to west of Hudson Bay and south to central British Columbia and extreme northern Manitoba.

The Arctic ground squirrel is found in northwest Canada in British Columbia and Yukon territories, and in Alaska (Wouding, 1982).

Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native )

occurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations

Canada

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Global Range: Alaska, Yukon, mainland Northwest Territories, and northern British Columbia.

The "largest of the ground squirrels" is approximately "30-40 cm in length and has a 8-15 cm bushy-tipped tail" at maturity (Wouding pg 158. 1982). Females are slightly smaller than males, who weigh about 820 grams. This species has a tawny or tan coloring, with reddish or cinnamon colored cheeks, shoulders and head. It also has pale tawny colored underside and legs along with a brown or gray back with some white spots. This squirrel has a white eye-ring and a tail that has brown and black-tipped hairs.

Arctic ground squirrels have two annual molts. The first starts at the hind-end and proceeds to the head in the spring (around June). In the fall, the molt occurs in the opposite direction (starting at the head) and leaves the squirrel with a grayer tone. The spring molt produces a molt-line that is not noticeable in the fall molt.

This species, as does most of the family Sciuridae, has excellent eyesight. They are built for a terrestrial life of digging with heavy bodies and strong forelimbs with big claws. (Wouding, 1982; Banfield, 1974; Macdonald, 1985)

Range mass: 698 to 907 g.

Average mass: 820 g.

Length: 40 cm

Weight: 791 grams

Sexual Dimorphism: Males are slightly larger than females.

Length:
Range: 332-495 mm

Weight:
Range: 530-816 g

Habitat and Ecology

Systems

• Terrestrial

The Arctic ground squirrel is found in habitats of permafrost. They prefer areas of tundra in the clearings of forests or above treeline. Within these areas, this squirrel lives in places of gravel or sand so that there is good drainage to prevent permafrost at the ground surface. Examples of these areas are moraines, river banks, sandbanks, and lake shores. Where they are found further south, they stick to the areas of bogs and dense coniferous forests where there is permafrost. (Banfield, 1974; Wouding 1982)

Terrestrial Biomes: tundra ; taiga

Comments: Tundra, subalpine brushy meadows, roadsides, riverbanks, lakeshores, sandbanks; not in permafrost areas. Well-drained habitats often associated with sand dunes or eskers. Digs extensive buroow system that may be used for many years; most tunnels are not more than 3 feet deep, with several entrances.

Non-Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species do not make significant seasonal migrations. Juvenile dispersal is not considered a migration.

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.

These squirrels are herbivorous creatures who eat all sorts of fruits, seeds, leaves, mushrooms, flowers and grasses. "In late summer, seeds and leaves are cached in the hibernation den or in the passages leading to it" (Banfield, 1974). This collection includes up to four pounds of willow leaves, grasses and seeds. After hibernation, the squirrels are able to feed on this food reserve while the new vegetation is growing. They also eat carcasses of animals such as lemmings, other ground squirrels and even caribou. "There is a record of one having carried away two pounds of caribou meat during a single day" (Banfield,1974; Wouding, 1982).

Comments: Eats stems and leaves, seeds, fruits, and roots of grasses, sedges, and other green plants, as well as woody plants and mushrooms. Stores food (seeds, willow leaves, bog rush fruit) in burrow for consumption in spring. Sometimes preys on collared lemmings and young snowshoe hares (O'Donoghue and Stuart 1993).

In Yukon Territory, dispersal distances of juveniles were as follows: females, mean 120 m, median 61 m, n = 101; males, mean 515 m, median 241 m, n = 49 (Byrom and Krebs 1999).

Activity reduces lichen cover, whereas monocots and dicots increase (Mallory and Heffernan 1987). Predators include ermine, wolves, arctic fox, grizzly bear, and humans.

Comments: Hibernates September to April or May; adults enter hibernation first, then juveniles. Males emerge first, through snow. Active from about 0400-2130 hours. Inactive during cloudy or rainy weather (Whitaker 1980).

The Arctic ground squirrel has a shortened breeding season. The testes of males descend from their abdomens to their scrotums during the first week after hibernation (the testes regress in early June). Once this occurs, the three week breeding season begins. The pups are born after a twenty-five day gestation period with no hair or teeth and their eyes shut. The litter sizes range from five to ten individuals. Newborn squirrels gain skin pigmentations on the fourth day. After eight days the babies grow hair, and their eyes open around twenty days. Once their eyes are open, they begin to wander around. At first they do not wander too far away, but after a week they begin to travel farther distances. Around this time, the pups are weaned from their mothers. By September they are almost fully grown and will leave their natal burrow in the late summer to find another burrow to occupy, or they may dig a new burrow on the outskirts of the community. These sites may become flooded or covered in permafrost, leading to a considerably high mortality of young Arctic ground squirrels. These young squirrels are active for a longer period of time than the adults because they must acquire more fat to survive the winter. In the following spring, they reach a mature weight. (Banfield, 1974; Wouding 1982)

Mates in May soon after emerging from hibernation. Litter of 5-10 young is born in late June, weaned at 20 days (Whitaker 1980).

Tissues avoid damage from steroids: Arctic ground squirrel
 

Tissues of Arctic ground squirrels are protected from damage by suppressing androgen receptors except in muscles.

     
  "Lipid, the primary metabolic fuel for most hibernators, provides the needed energy from the catabolism of the fatty acids but provides insufficient glucose (from glycerol)...The problem for AGS [arctic ground squirrel] is how to build the needed muscle tissue prior to hibernation...The key anabolic steroid required for an increase in muscle mass is testosterone (Mooradian, Morley & Korenman 1987). It can be provided from the blood either directly (via testosterone from the testes) or indirectly (via the conversion within the tissue of androgen precursors such as androstenedione which is usually produced by the adrenals, King et al. 1999)...In nature, the benefits of high testosterone levels...come with costs...As a consequence, many seasonally breeding vertebrates limit high testosterone levels to the breeding season." (Boonstra et al. 2011:1349)

"We propose that AGS have solved the problem of hibernating in sub-zero temperatures by ramping up the adrenal production of key androgens. We hypothesize that at the tissue level it must ultimately be T [testosterone], as only T stimulates muscle growth (Mooradian, Morley & Korenman 1987) and muscle protein is required for gluconeogenesis to supplement that coming from the glycerol when lipid is catabolized." (Boonstra et al. 2011:1358)

It is not yet known how the Arctic ground squirrel mitigates the cost of high androgen levels.
  Learn more about this functional adaptation.

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 0
Specimens with Barcodes: 5
Species With Barcodes: 1

US Federal List: no special status

CITES: no special status

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - Secure

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - Secure

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Population

Population Trend

Major Threats

Conservation Actions

Eskimos eat the animal and use its fur in the making of parkas (they call this species "parky" because of how they use its pelt). (Wouding, 1982)

Comments: Spermophilus parryii formerly was included in Asian S. undulatus; it has been consistently regarded as a distinct species for the past few decades.

MtDNA data indicate that the arctic ground squirrel has had a long evolutionary history in the Nearctic, with strong phylogeographic structure and stable clades persisting through multiple glacial cycles (Eddingsaas et al. 2004).