by Greg Mayer
Evolution 2013, the joint annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB), and the American Society of Naturalists (ASN), was held in Snowbird, Utah, June 21-25, 2013. I stayed at the Alta Lodge, about a mile further up Little Cottonwood Canyon from Snowbird. It was the first time I’d visited the Rocky Mountains (aside from a visit to the Black Hills, an isolated outlier in South Dakota), and the biological diversity was striking. In much of North America the most diverse and visible group of mammals are the squirrels, and this is especially so in the Rockies.The most common squirrel in Snowbird and Alta was the Uinta ground squirrel (Spermophilus armatus).
Known locally as “potguts“, these little fellas were everywhere at Snowbird, inhabiting lawns and walkways (notice the asphalt substrate), entering the event tent, and boldly begging from passers-by. The natural habitat of these critters is rocky slopes and meadows. Some had burrows in the lawns, but perhaps a bit more naturally some inhabited cracks and crevices among the rocks.
Also on the lawns, but less common and a bit more skittish was the Yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris). Like their close relative in the the east, the woodchuck, marmots are fat squirrels that live underground. Unlike the potguts, who were active all day long and into the evening, the marmots seemed to be most visible in the morning.
The only tree squirrel was the spruce or red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus). They were quite loud and noisy, and active in the morning before many people were around, foraging for leftovers and in garbage cans. In the east, these squirrels deserve their usual common name of “red”, but these were quite gray; the grayish ones are sometimes called spruce squirrels (spruce being a common tree in the coniferous forest favored by this species). The white eye ring and black line separating the flank and ventral coloration are typical. They are smaller than the gray squirrel of eastern North America, and seem to curl the tail over their backs more habitually.
There are many other species of mammals in this part of Utah, and I saw two mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) strolling the canyon slopes, and a coyote (Canis latrans) standing in the middle of the road (bigger and less scruffy than Wisconsin coyotes). Although I did not see one, moose (Alces alces) were seen a number of times. One attendee told me of how he spotted a moose in the canyon creek bed one morning and followed it carefully along the canyon. When he arrived at the meeting site, and told his colleagues breathlessly of his adventure, they replied “Oh yeah, it was up here in the parking lot, and we saw it wander down toward the creek.”
While driving up the Canyon from the valley, at our driver’s suggestion I kept an eye out for mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) on the rocky slopes. Unfortunately I did not see any of these magnificent animals. During glacial times, they undoubtedly occurred in the area, but were not native in historic times, perhaps having disappeared during one of the warmer periods of the Holocene. Introductions, eventually successful, began in 1967, showing that difficulties of dispersal, not habitat suitability, limited their range. While, on rather dubious grounds, the state of Utah claims they were native in historic times, it is nonetheless true that they have been returned to part of their prehistoric range.
I love these sorts of animals. We have lots of woodchucks around here and I often see them when I drive to work. There are red squirrels around but they are very territorial (and sometimes even grouchy – always chattering their annoyance) and they prefer different woods than are near me.
When I was in Alberta’s Badlands those cute ground squirrels used to beg for food all the time. They’d gently paw at your shoes and legs asking for food and you’d have to be careful not to step on them.
Those ground squirrels were the life of the party at Evolution (especially for those of us from the Southeast who’ve never seen such creatures!). Our first day there, we saw a group of 5 of them standing upright, huddled in a circle. “Oh look,” my friend said, “they’re having their own little conference.” hahah.
‘Mythical’ corpse-eating fly rediscovered in Europe
Ooh, it looks like something out of The Fly!
I thought I’d read/heard somewhere that eastern coyotes were larger than western coyotes but the data were not as readily available as I thought. However, after searching Google Scholar I found Gompper’s (2002) study which suggests that is indeed the case.
http://snr.missouri.edu/fw/faculty/pdf/gompper/coyote-ecology.pdf
And indeed there’s the contention that eastern coyotes are actually ‘coywolves:’
http://www.easterncoyoteresearch.com/
There are some giant ones here in the east. I saw a big one near my house. You hear them howl and yip at night and my dog goes nuts. I’m actually glad to have my dog with me when I see a large one (they are usually rather slight) because she’s 105 pounds.
There have been incidents of aggression and I think you’re wise to be alert. I found Jon Way’s Suburban Howls most interesting. But the clash of ‘coywolves’ and suburbia (and even “urbia!”) seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
Meaning absolutely no offense to anyone, I’d personally much rather attend a conference in Snowbird than in Vegas. 😀
I’ve been to Snowbird and enjoyed it. I haven’t ever been to Vegas, and was happy to get out of accompanying my girlfriend to a meeting there some six wks ago. That said, if I ever do wind up there, I’m heading straight for Hoover Dam and the Canyon. That said, I was also surprised to learn not all that long ago that there are some natural areas set aside on the outskirts of LV.
“In much of North America the most diverse and visible group of mammals are the squirrels,”.
A good reminder for a EU still divided into nations that federal US is most of a continent.
Hmmm, really?
Canada is the largest in area but it’s mostly tundra and there are only 34 million people who mostly live around the US border so we can do there for shopping 🙂
I used “North America” rather than “US” quite deliberately. While there’s only one Canadian endemic squirrel (and, predictably, it’s in western Canada), the distribution of the northern squirrels, some of which have their main distribution in Canada, is quite interesting. (My knowledge of Mexican squirrels is quite limited, although my knowledge picks up again in Central America.)
GCM
“It was the first time I’d visited the Rocky Mountains …”
Not so fast … I’m not sure you can say you’ve been in the Rockies. While some would include the Wasatch as part of the Rocky Mountains, others would not. Most of us who dwell in the Great Basin think of the Wasatch as our eastern border. Regardless, thanks for the article on squirrels. I grew up in the east and I do miss having grey squirrels in my yard.
I heard some coyotes a couple weeks ago in Joshua Tree, California, a bit after sunset. Sounded exactly like humans imitating coyotes….
b&
They yelp to each other. In the night I’ll sleep through them yelping because they are far away but my gigantic dog wakes up & tears through the house barking, which scares the crap out of me!
I’m sure they would have been calling later in the night as well, but I slept soundly — and this was in a trailer with all the windows open.
I spotted what might have been paw prints around the house, but they weren’t clear enough to be sure.
If I ever take Baihu with me to visit my cousin, you can be sure that he’ll remain indoors (or somewhere equally safe), but that’d be the extent of my concerns.
b&
Yep! Keep the kitty indoors!
Oh, he’s always indoors except for when he’s on a leash that’s attached to me.
But not all forms of indoors are necessarily safe. A tent, for example, might technically be indoors but would only be safe enough for him if he was still on said leash and said leash was still attached to me….
b&
I live on the eastern side of the US, and we have coyote neighbors. I am not sure if they live there, but they certainly frequent an abandoned grove behind our property. The grove is also home to lots of snakes, rabbits, owls, some hawks, and even a bobcat that is occasionally spotted and has even been caught on camera once or twice. The coyotes can be heard pretty much every night. Sirens really set them off. They are frequently seen, in glimpses, and there was even one occasion when a coyote chased the neighbors dog through our backyard. The coyote quickly turned around after it burst into the open and saw us.
Yes, I’ve found coyotes may take on a dog but they typically won’t if there is a dog AND a human. Years ago my dad took his dog on a walk and two coyotes took a squirrel out on the ice (this was in a conservation area. His dog chased the coyotes (despite being hollered at) and the coyotes started to turn back to confront his dog but saw my dad & thought better of it. His dog then ate the squirrel on the ice where my dad wasn’t about to go (bad dog!).
Yet another reason why it’s a good idea to keep your dog on a leash when walking.
She would have dragged him over to go after the coyotes. Also, it is in the dead of winter at -20C with no one around and when you have a large dog it is nice to let it off leash. It isn’t exactly in the city.
George Rumens
Posted July 12, 2013 at 2:06 am | Permalink
Reply to Ben Goren: coyotes in Joshua Tree. I used to camp-out in Joshua Tree in the sixties, and hear night-time coyotes singing from the skies. A perculiar effect. I once climbed one of those elephant rocks and looked down upon a lynx(bob-cat?)with one paw outstretched as he gazed upon my companions below. The Anza Borego desert was deserted in those days. Although a Ranger tried to give me a ticket for parking 27 yards from the tarmac when the limit was 25 yards. He looked at my English beard and Beatles haircut, and talked about ‘Liberals’ who climbed the rocks to smoke ‘mariguana’ Incidently, the best cure for the morning dryness after camping is to swill the mouth with raw tequila.
I was in the same hotel as you but it was right before I started following, oh no! At one point when I was (wo)manning our booth the ground squirrel crawled onto my shoe before I decided that was just too close!
I recently visited Reno and outside my hotel there were some solitary ground squirrels that looked very similar to the Woodchucks I had seen earlier on the same trip in Virginia. I understand the Woodchuck is not found in the west so can anyone suggest what the animal I saw might have been?
I also saw several coyotes whilst in the Reno area which was pretty cool for a Brit like me.
Yellow-bellied marmots (close relatives of woodchucks) occur in that part of Nevada, so that would be my first guess. There are also a few species of ground squirrels that could be possible, but they would be smaller than woodchucks.
GCM
Size-wise the animals I saw looked close to a woodchuck so Yellow-bellied Marmot seems most likely.
Many thanks 🙂
It’s so nice to see how the tail changes in squirrels according to their habitat. Very nice pictures!
Reply to Ben Goren: coyotes in Joshua Tree. I used to camp-out in Joshua Tree in the sixties, and hear night-time coyotes singing from the skies. A perculiar effect. I once climbed one of those elephant rocks and looked down upon a lynx(bob-cat?)with one paw outstretched as he gazed upon my companions below. The Anza Borego desert was deserted in those days. Although a Ranger tried to give me a ticket for parking 27 yards from the tarmac when the limit was 25 yards. He looked at my English beard and Beatles haircut, and talked about ‘Liberals’ who climbed the rocks to smoke ‘mariguana’ Incidently, the best cure for the morning dryness after camping is to swill the mouth with raw tequila.