Google do squirrels hibernate9/17/2023 ![]() They resurface from their burrows more than 3 feet below the ground each spring, famished and eager to mate.Ĭhmura and Williams, along with co-authors, analyzed long-term air and soil temperature data at two sites in Arctic Alaska in conjunction with data collected using biologgers. They still must spend energy to generate enough heat from stored fat to keep tissues from freezing. Credit: Cory Williams/Colorado State UniversityĪrctic ground squirrels survive harsh Alaska winters by hibernating for over half the year, drastically slowing their lungs, heart, brain, and body functions. "Our data show that the active layer, the soil layer above the permafrost, freezes later in the fall, doesn't get as cold in the middle of winter, and thaws slightly earlier in the spring." She added, "These changes, amounting to about a 10-day reduction of the time soil is frozen at a meter deep, have occurred over just 25 years, which is fairly rapid."Ī juvenile arctic ground squirrel foraging near Toolik Field Station in northern Alaska. Helen Chmura, lead author for this latest research, started the analysis while a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2018 and now works as a USDA Forest Service researcher with the Rocky Mountain Research Station. "We can show a direct link between changes in temperature and the physiology and ecology of these animals." "I think the thing that makes our study unique is that we are looking at a long enough dataset to show the impacts of climate change on a mammal in the Arctic," said Williams, who joined the CSU faculty in 2021. ![]() ![]() ![]() Senior author Cory Williams, assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Colorado State University, began studying arctic ground squirrels while at the University of Alaska Fairbanks more than 15 years ago. ![]()
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