Franklin's ground squirrel (Poliocitellus franklinii) is a species native to tallgrass American prairie, from Canada to the northcentral United States.
The species hibernates from early fall to spring, and bears a litter of 6–8 pups at a time. The species is not choosy in its diet, eschewing the typical herbivorous diet of most squirrels when it can find insects, eggs, young birds, and fruits, seeds, and nuts when they are available.
Due to the destruction of prairie, the populations of Franklin's ground squirrel have dwindled, approaching levels of concern. However, the species is prolific, and locally abundant.
Read more about Franklin's Ground Squirrel: Taxonomy
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“At twenty years of age, the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.”
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
“When the ground was partially bare of snow, and a few warm days had dried its surface somewhat, it was pleasant to compare the first tender signs of the infant year just peeping forth with the stately beauty of the withered vegetation which had withstood the winter ... decent weeds, at least, which widowed Nature wears.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A squirrel leaping from bough to bough, and making the wood but one wide tree for his pleasure, fills the eye not less than a lion,—is beautiful, self-sufficing, and stands then and there for nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)