Snow Gopher

[bearkilr]

I'm all for population management, even the fellow studying them in the quote was. A lot of it isn't managed at all though, I'm guilty of it and I've shot my fields clean, it's easy to do when you're there every day in the summer with a Kimber rimfire and a .243 to go from the front fence to the back without getting up. I learned my lesson when I saw what happened in the fields with them gone.

When I was younger, we had tons of Franklin's ground squirrels. I haven't seen one for over 10 years now, not sure what happened to them, though it wasn't overhunting by any means.My suspicion is herbicide and pesticide from farming.

 

[Sniper-T]

I learned my lesson when I saw what happened in the fields with them gone.

Aside from having to go elsewhere to shoot... what else did you learn?

 

[Ardent]

Aside from having to go elsewhere to shoot... what else did you learn?

That there are some very dense people sitting on the odd computer monitor across from mine, who can't read earlier portions of threads.

 

[Suka]

Besides, shoot'em too early and they won't have their little one's.

Always leave seed for next year.

 

[Red devil]

Sweet!

 

[7mmlefty]

Hunting gophers is a great sport.
Teaches the kids to shoot, and the adults to have some fun, and leaves protein on the ground for other vermin to eat.... its all good.

Gophers are there for a reason I guess, and saving some for seed in every patch is probably a good idea.

I dont like seeing any land void of wildlife, but thats just me.

 

[jethunter]

We are likely in very different soil types / regions.

These guys have some very fair points, many gopher epidemics aren't due to gophers breeding or wrecking pasture, but overgrazing in the first place. Our fields when fallow stay near hip deep in grass, complete with gophers unregulated. I don't crop farm, so can't comment there and your experience will trump mine for sure, but with livestock in the foothills they've helped our fields.

I'm not sure that the article you posted on the Colombian ground squirrel is relevant to our gophers, which are Richardson's ground squirrels. There are a few Colombians around in some places too, they are more commonly called "bush gophers" here in Central AB. The Colombian has longer hair and darker colour than the Richardson's, and they are not nearly as prolific breeders as the Richardson's. Their burrows do not tend to be in open areas, but more in wooded or mixed wooded areas. I have never seen one in an open pasture or meadow. They also tend to be more "trusting" than the Richardson's and we normally do not shoot them here because they are not very common in our region, and they do not cause any signifigant crop damage. Richardson's gs on the other hand can take over a field in a few years.