Have you seen this squirrel?

ST. ALBERT - An Edmonton biologist hopes St. Albert and Sturgeon County residents can help her solve the case of the missing ground squirrel.

MacEwan University biology professor Jessica Haines contacted the Gazette earlier this month to get the public’s help in tracking down sightings of the Franklin’s ground squirrel in the St. Albert and Sturgeon County region

“This species used to be common in this part of the province,” Haines said referring to the greater Edmonton and Sturgeon County region, but it hasn’t been seen here in at least a decade.

Haines said researchers don’t currently known enough about the Franklin’s squirrel to say if it has actually disappeared from this region. If it has, it could be a sign of a bigger ecological problem.

“If this species is disappearing, probably there’s something going on in our parkland (region) we’re not aware of yet,” Haines said.

Gopher-esque

The Franklin’s ground squirrel is one of five ground-dwelling squirrels found in Alberta, reports Nature Alberta. The others are the thirteen-lined, Colombian, golden-mantled, and Richardson’s.

St. Albert residents have likely seen Richardson’s ground squirrels popping out of holes in fields around town. While Richardson’s squirrels are tan and live in big colonies in fields, Franklin’s squirrels have grey heads and tails and live in small groups in dense bush.

“They have a very long bushy tail,” Haines said — almost as long as a red squirrel’s — and are known to climb low branches to get at berries.

Residents might also recognize a Franklin’s squirrel by its call. Unlike the simple “eep!” of an alarmed Richardson’s, a Franklin’s produces a long, bubbly trill.

Nature Alberta reports that Franklin’s squirrels prefers to eat vegetation but have been known to eat frogs, eggs, and prey the size of ducks.

“They’re very bold, very cute, and very charismatic,” Haines said, and are known to steal food from human campsites.

Nature Alberta started tracking Franklin’s squirrel sightings about two years ago after a board member noticed that their provincial conservation status was listed as “data deficient,” said executive director Richard Schneider. They started collecting sightings from the public and government records, with Haines joining later to create a more formal study.

Initial research suggests these squirrels were once found around Sturgeon County and the central Alberta/parkland region, and had also been seen south of Calgary, Haines said. They appear to like lakes and provincial parks, as most reported sightings have been around such areas.

Haines said her research suggests that Franklin’s squirrels appear to have vanished from half to two-thirds of their historic range in just a few decades.

“It’s pretty concerning how many places it has disappeared from,” she said, especially since they appear to be well adapted to humans

Haines and her team are now investigating current and historic sightings of the Franklin’s squirrel to confirm its status.

“So far the citizen science data has been 100 per cent accurate,” she said, with the team finding the squirrels everywhere citizens said they were spotted.

Haines said she hoped to get enough data on this squirrel in the next three years to determine if it needed government protection. As most current sightings of it are in provincial parks, she also wanted to determine if this was simply a case of observer bias (i.e. the squirrels are elsewhere but not where people can see them) or if those parks were the only place left where the squirrels can survive.

Residents can report current and historic sightings of Franklin’s ground squirrels in Alberta using the iNaturalist app or via naturealberta.ca/ground-squirrel.