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Grassy gopher: description of the animal

The motley gopher lives mainly in the steppes. This fussy creature, vigilantly guarding its own hole. Everyone who has ever been to the steppes has seen the silhouettes of these animals standing in columns, with the front legs folded on their chests, and the surrounding neighborhoods. One moment - and the squirrel disappeared!

It is interesting that they attributed special legends to special properties. The nomads believed that these animals know where gold treasures are buried in the steppes, and that if you go to sleep in the open field, the gophers can come to the resting person and open all their secrets to him in the ear.

Spread

The gopher-colored gopher is common in the southern forest-steppes and steppes of the East European Plain. Also there are 2 small isolated habitats: in the west of Belarus and the north-west of Ukraine.

Gopher Ground Squirrel: description of appearance

This is one of the shortest-tailed and small gophers. Its weight reaches 500 g, while males are slightly larger than females. Head is large, with huge eyes. The paws of the animal are short, with moving long fingers. Gopher squirrel has a rather rare and short, adherent hairline; Only his hair is fluffy and long. The color of the back is mottled and bright: on the brown or gray-brownish main background, large, well-defined, yellowish or whitish specks are scattered, fused at the back of the head into a ripple.

It is interesting that in young animals the speckles can be arranged in rows. The upper part of the head is the same color with the back, periodically slightly darker. The ring of light is surrounded by the eyes; Under them are brown spots. Head from below and neck white. The belly changes color from ochristo-yellow to light-gray. The tail is two-colored, has a light fringing. The general tone of color within the range dims and brightens toward the south.

The speckled ground squirrel contains 34 chromosomes in the karyotype.

Reproduction

In these animals, the breeding season begins a week and a half after hibernation. The rally lasts about two weeks. It is accompanied by the arrival of males in the territory of females. Males at this time are very aggressive - they are pursuing each other, "boxing", biting. Mating always occurs in the hole. The pregnancy lasts about 27 days. After that, about seven cubs are born.

At the very beginning of June, the young animal (gopher) for the first time emerges from its hole. Then the female leaves her offspring for 3 days, thereby forcing him to start eating solid foods. A few days later the young ones leave their mother, settling down their holes.

The motley gorse gives infertile hybrids in the middle of the Volga region with a ground squirrel. And on average Transnistria with a gophers European.

Food

But this is not the only interesting motley gopher. What does this animal eat ? The composition of its fodder is vegetable. It has about 50 names, the main part is cereals (feather grass, fescue, bluegrass, wild oats), as well as flowering herbs (yarrow, clover, dandelion). A well-defined diet change depending on the season. In early spring, the animal eats plant roots, green parts in summer, and seeds in autumn.

Cultural cereals (wheat, rye, sometimes barley) eat entirely (stems, shoots, grain, leaves), while further than 50 meters from the extreme part of the field does not go. During the active flight of beetles, he eats them. Stocks make small - 500 grams, and then - in case of bad weather in summer (in winter, animals do not eat). In the periods of young growth and rutting in dense settlements, there are also cases of necrophagy and cannibalism (eating trapped relatives).

Lifestyle

The inhabitant of the feather grass steppes, the southern part of the forest-steppe and the dry meadows is a ground squirrel. The description of his way of life we consider in this article. Its ancestral habitats are the elevated parts of the steppe, used for pastures, pastures and mowing. But due to the extensive plowing of the steppes, the gopher was forced out onto the slopes of dry beams, the outskirts of forest belts, and borders.

In the years of its high numbers, it temporarily settles along country roads, in vineyards and old gardens, along the margins of fields with wheat and corn crops. The lowlands are rarely used and only as forage sites.

The motley gopher, whose photo is presented in this article, lives in colonies (dense and sparse) along the roadsides, river floodplains and so on. There are also single animals. In this case, each adult takes his own burrow. There are temporary and permanent burrows. There gophers winter, breed and fly.

Sometimes burrows have additional moves and ranks. Temporary dwellings are smaller and simpler. Animals lead a sedentary life, while they do not make migrations in search of food. Only males are mobile during the rut, as well as young in the period of settlement.

Number of

The total number of speckled ground squirrel has decreased over the past decades due to the fighter operations carried out with the use of chemicals and plowing of virgin lands.

Relationships with people

On the main part of the range (in addition to Moldova and Ukraine), because of the small size, the gopher does not cause significant damage to agriculture. Periodically harms grain, garden and garden crops, forest plantations, pastures.

Promotes complete destruction of the soil layer. At the moment it has no commercial significance. The natural carrier of some helminthic invasions, the causative agent of tularemia. This animal does not represent any value for man, hence, hunting is not conducted on it.

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