Richardson’s Ground Squirrels: in the news and in excess

Richardson's Ground Squirrel or Flickertail
Minot, North Dakota 2023

In 2023 I described how we had seen the Flickertail or Richardson’s Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus richardsonii) when we were in North Dakota earlier that year. We were staying at a hotel in Minot, around 50 miles from the Canadian border. Spotting the ground squirrels was easy. They were in the mowed grass bank directly in front of the hotel.

One morning we headed north to the Upper Soris Wildlife Reserve and passed the main gate of Minot Air Force base. Later as we drove south to Bismarck and an excellent dinner, a Boeing B52 flew in low from the south and passed directly overhead towards the base.l Minot is home to a B52 bomb group, an aeroplane that entered service in the year I left primary school. I can even remember the excitement of the boys in the school playground at the hope of seeing the new Stratofortress. It only took 49 years.

However, I was amused to see that Minot Air Force Base was in the news earlier this year because the whole place is being over-run with Dak-Rats i.e. Dakota Rats, as these ground squirrels are called in the base. The US Air Force was suggesting that not only do they spread disease but their tunnelling undermines housing, runways and other equipment. 

And it not just the air base that is concerned, the 48,000 inhabitants of the city of Minot are also complaining about the increase in numbers and the problems the ground squirrels cause. They are being shot, trapped and gassed with carbon monoxide in their thousands. And we thought ourselves lucky to spot a few next to the hotel. No wonder though that North Dakota has the nickname ‘Flickertail State’.