Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Do ground squirrel populations change drastically year to year ?

Pdogs have been up and down over the last decade, some years have been really bad.

Are grounds squirrel population variations like this as well?

Several years ago our gopher pop. crashed. I think like all animals the pop. varies, but that was the worst year I have ever seen in over 40 years.. I think I shot 250 or so, that was usually an afternoons shoot.. The did rebound quickly..

Yes.

I had spots that literally crawled with them in 2009 and 2010.

You won't fire a single round if you go to those spots today. They are gone, gone, gone.




Dave

Because you killed them all.

All of them...

Landowners finally resort to poison?

Spotshooter: I have Hunted Ground Squirrels since 1966 and indeed their populations fluctuate and sometimes crash.
Sometimes in huge areas sometimes in small areas.
One, sometimes overlooked, reason in ranch and farm areas is when fields where Ground Squirrels live get "tilled" - the resulting 12 to 18 inch deep disruption of the earth covers and closes the Ground Squirrel tunnels and they somehow often can not get new exits dug for themselves.
I have seen this in hundreds of instances and it will often take 2 to 3 years for that field to become re-infested with Ground Squirrels!
Thankfully many fields do not get "tilled" very often.
I am not aware (sure of?) Ground Squirrels being susceptible to disease as much (as often) as are Prairie Dogs.
I have seen vast Dog Towns wiped out completely by Plague in one year.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

In my area we have the Columbian Ground squirrel and the first 25 years of my life there seemed to be a never ending supply.

For some reason, they started to decline about 15 years ago and many areas don't have a squirrel left. They seem to be making a small comeback the last few years, but they are still nowhere near at the levels they once were.

4 guys shooting 800 rounds a day for decades on end might have a little something to do with it.

Put another way, how many hawks and eagles would it take to kill the same number? If the sky was swarming with them would you be surprised the squirrels are gone?

Nope.

Mother nature.



Dave

Plagues and extreme weather is what kills them.




Dave

Looking forward to your catch and release PD hunt videos.

Looking forward to you knowing something about anything in 2017.

Fingers crossed.




Clark

No videos? Huh.

No wife posts today?

Huh.





Dave

This is the 3rd wild fluctuation I've seen.

Last fall we had good water all spring into summer, but then had an extreme heat wave and it really messed with the wildlife.

April Fools plans this year? There's always so fun.

I think the die off here resulted from the extreme levels of snow.

I remember shooting them off 4' of snowpack. I think they came up to eat and realized there wasn't going to be any eating for another 45 days.




Dave

I don't do that any more.

My last prank hurt too many people so I have changed my ways.




Clark

Good one, but you're early.

Why don't you and I agree that we both think the other is an azzhole and move on? I'm good with that.

Right after you suck my dick.




Dave

Not worth it.

Still not worth it.

Is this Fireball or his wife?

It's hard to tell. Estrogen levels seem about equal.




Dave

Bye.

In my area, I'm thinking it had to be some kind of plague or disease that went through.

Even isolated colonies that rarely got shot were gone over the course of a couple years.

During the time our local squirrels were at a low point we would drive to Eastern OR and their Beldings Ground Squirrels were thick as hell.

Huh, good to know. Populations are down around here too compared to 20yrs ago, but I guessed ranchers were getting tired of dealing with holes in irrigation pipes and just resorted to poison. .22LR shortages for the last 7yrs had fewer hunters too, so I thought numbers would be back up if poison wasn't the reason.

In related news, the jackrabbit cycle was at an all-time high this year.

Huge fluctuations year to year. On the bad years you literally can not poison enough of them. We have tried, with the good poison too.

Nothing we do as humans even makes a dent.

Drought, tough winters, floods, disease and just an overpopulation can cause a collapse.

Generally takes a few years to rebuild, and then it happens again.

Sure, eagles, hawks, snakes, badgers, coyotes and foxes eat some of them, but its the other factors that really drive the populations.

While our Richardson's ground squirrel is coming back a bit, the pocket gophers are terrible. Kinda sucks, you cant shoot them.

I was talking to a guy yesterday who worked for the Air Force at Gowen Field as a helicopter mechanic and he was talking about the Black Plague that has hit the ground squirrels north of the Snake River in SW Idaho.

He mentioned something about the plague that really stood me up...."sounds like it got away from them."

At least in the southwest, ground squirrels are the most prevalent host to plague- much more so than prairie dogs. I suspect that is what knocks them down.