The Cascade golden-mantled ground squirrel (Callospermophilus saturatus ) is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae, in the order Rodentia. It is the largest species of the three within the genus Callospermophilus. It is found in the Cascade Mountains in the province of British Columbia, Canada and the state of Washington, United States.
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DiurnalDiurnal animals are active during the daytime, with a period of sleeping or other inactivity at night. The timing of activity by an animal depends ...
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FolivoreIn zoology, a folivore is a herbivore that specializes in eating leaves. Mature leaves contain a high proportion of hard-to-digest cellulose, less ...
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HerbivoreA herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example, foliage, for the main component of its die...
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MycophageMycophagy is the process of organisms consuming fungi. Many different organisms gain their energy from consuming fungi; these include birds, mammal...
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ZoochoryZoochory animals are those that can disperse plant seeds in several ways. Seeds can be transported on the outside of vertebrate animals (mostly mam...
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FossorialA fossorial animal is one adapted to digging which lives primarily but not solely, underground. Some examples are badgers, naked mole-rats, clams, ...
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Among animals, viviparity is the development of the embryo inside the body of the parent. The term 'viviparity' and its adjective form 'viviparous'...
A burrow is a hole or tunnel excavated into the ground by an animal to create a space suitable for habitation, temporary refuge, or as a byproduct ...
Torpor is a state of decreased physiological activity in an animal, usually marked by a reduced body temperature and metabolic rate. Torpor enables...
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PolygynyPolygyny is a mating system in which one male lives and mates with multiple females but each female only mates with a single male.
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PolygamyPolygamy is the practice of breeding with multiple partners. When a male breeds with more than one female at the same time – it is called polygyny....
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ColonialColonial animals live in large aggregations composed of two or more conspecific individuals in close association with or connected to, one another....
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SolitaryHi
HibernatingHibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic depression undergone by some animal species. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy charac...
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Not a migrantAnimals that do not make seasonal movements and stay in their native home ranges all year round are called not migrants or residents.
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starts withLarger in size than its C. madrensis and C. lateralis counterparts, C. saturatus has a vague russet color outlining its head and shoulders and running down the length of its body (at least 286 mm).
At birth, C. saturatus are ectothermic. Development of endothermy occurs gradually as individuals grow, increasing both body mass and amount of body fur. Individuals removed from their mother at 6 days of age lost body temperature at a faster rate than at 36 days, when individuals were able to maintain a high internal body temperature and determined to be homeothermic. This 36-day mark is conveniently the age at which offspring leave their burrows. Individuals remained homeothermic in response to a 2-day removal of food and water at 2-week intervals. Even with this drastically reduced body mass, torpor was not induced. Smaller individuals did become hypothermic, however, and were returned to the mother to be re-warmed.
Daily energy expenditures showed a small but significant increase of 10% as litter size increased, across a range of 3 to 5 offspring, the norm for the species. Body mass, time spent above ground and time spent foraging were not correlated. For the large amount energy contained in the mother's milk, changes in metabolism were small. Body mass and age of offspring was independent of litter size. The fact that daily energy expenditure does not vary with litter size suggests that other factors, such as habitat quality, affect number of offspring.
C. saturatus have been noted to move in two distinct ways – walking (mean speed of.21 m/s) and running (mean speed of 3.63 m/s). 26.9% of total time spent daily above ground was spent walking, while only 3.6% was spent running. It is noted that individuals run at their maximum aerobic speed of 3.6 m/s instead of the more maintainable minimum running pace of 2 m/s in order to minimize predation. C. saturatus moved an average of 5 km/day – 1.5 km walking and 3.3 km running. This considerable distance required 28.75 kJ/day of net added energy cost to do so, a 29% increase above BMR and 13% of daily energy expenditure.
C. saturatus occurs in the northwestern United States, north of the Columbia River, south of the Tulameen River in British Columbia, and west of the Similkameen River. No fossils have yet been found. C. saturatus is isolated from its sister species S. lateralis by the Columbia River; their differentiation is likely due to allopatric speciation.
Examination of alarm calls in response to Canis lupus familiaris among several species of ground squirrels showed that C. saturatus have a dialect of their own. Vocalizations were distinct, and could be identified 100% of the time by a discriminant source. This suggests that vocalizations can be used in addition to genetics and morphology to differentiate and designate species.
