Modern distribution of the European ground squirrel (Spermophilus citellus) in Ukraine

Study Extent

The burrow census was performed in May-July 2022 within eastern part of Chernivtsi Oblast and southern part of Vinnytsia Oblast'.

Sampling

The mapping of European ground squirrels (EGS) was performed by pedestrian examination of potential habitats (pastrures) in the areas were EGS have been previously reported. From two to five pedestrians were involved in the burrow census. Distance from each observer was 5-20 m on the areas with no souslik presence informatiom. Whenever we record any burrow (either active or inactive), we applied more tight formation with distance 3-5 m between obervers. Each burrow was geotagged in the field using hand-held GPS Garmin eTrex30x with accuracy app. 3 m. Only visually active burrows were geotagged, e.g. those having signs of EGS regular visiting the burrow (feces of EGS, open entrance with no mud inside, no spider webs etc.). The only exception was on colony Bernovo2, where we had no access to GPS device, but geotagged some burrows using mobile phone. To separate EGS from close species (Spermophilus suslicus), either photographing of sousliks or live-trapping has been performed on most colonies.

Quality Control

The author is fully responsible for the quality of data provided within the dataset.

Method steps

1. Conducting of field trips and visual identification of the animals or signs of their presence.
2. Georeferencing.
3. Organizing of dataset according to Darwin Core standards.

The dataset consists of records of European sousliks (Spermophilus citellus).

1. Animalia
   rank: kingdom
2. Chordata
   rank: phylum
3. Mammalia
   rank: class
4. Rodentia
   rank: order
5. Sciuridae
   rank: family
6. Spermophilus
   rank: genus
7. Spermophilus citellus
   rank: species

Southern Vinnytsia and Eastern Chernivtsi provinces of Ukraine.