Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel

Never having seen the species in the wild I was delighted we had good views of a Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus) as it ventured out of its burrow to eat dandelion heads. We were in Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge in North Dakota at the end of May.

Widely distributed in the grasslands and prairies, from Canada south to Texas, this ground squirrel was also known by a number of common names including Striped Gopher and Leopard Ground Squirrel. It is omnivorous taking insects and, apparently, even mice and shrews. I will return to its dietary requirements in another article since my knowledge of its omnivory apparently saved an experiment in the mid-1960s, earning a few soon-forgotten brownie points. These still images were taken from 4K video and processed in Photoshop and Topaz DeNoise AI.