Early rat shooting

[Lenard]

I thought I would share some lessons that my shooting partners have learned over the past few years. Usually, around the middle of march, we get reports of the rats being up pretty good. They have been told, that the males come out early while the females remain underground. Weather permitting, they would go over every weekend and shoot rats. This carries on into the middle of april, when I am free to go. Anyway, during these trips, they disected quite a few to see what sex they were. To their surprise, most were females with little ones in the womb. This shooting continued on for about three years with heavy pressure starting in the middle of march. Mind you, they were shooting on a ranch with 6 pivots and a bordering ranch with 13 pivots. When we started shooting over there, there was no shortage of rats until they went down in hot weather.

Last season, we saw a total of a dozen rats on the 6 pivot place as the killing of the females early and a bad winter had literally wiped them out.


I had a discussion this week with my son who lived in the Klamath Falls area for years. He indicated he had done the same thing by starting early and continuing the pressure all spring. It took him a couple years, but he literally wiped out the one big field. So beware of shooting too early and wiping out the populations.

[Guy M]

Yup. My buddies and I did a fine job on the rock chucks in our local area here in Washington. We gave them a break for a few years and they've come back pretty good, but by getting greedy for a few years we about ended our local varmint shooting... I used to shoot 'em all, figuring that there was a never-ending supply. Now I shoot a few and leave a few so I can do it again next year.

[surfclod]

The most common of our living targets out here is the Richardson Ground Squirrel, and fortunately a professor at a nearby university has spent years on studying these critters and published her data that helps me plan their demise
2
(The poor lady would commit hara-kari if she knew her life's work was being used to kill her beloved species)


A sample of her work...

In Southern Alberta, adult male Richardson's ground squirrels emerge from hibernation in mid- to late February. Male ground squirrels terminate torpor several days before emergence above ground, spending those days underground in a state of euthermy. During this time they eat cached seeds, permitting testicular recrudescence and accumulation of fat stores for the upcoming mating season. (see Reproductive Physiology)

The majority of adult female Richardson's ground squirrels emerge from hibernation in early to mid March, about two weeks afrer the emergence of males. Females mate within a few days of emergence from hibernation. In contrast to males, female ground squirrels emerge above ground almost immediately after termination of the final torpor bout. data

In southern Alberta, females give birth in an underground chamber in late March to early April, and litters first appear above ground from late April to early May. Young and adults spend the summer accumulating body fat in preparation for hibernation.

Adult male ground squirrels enter hibernation (immerge) from late May to early June, and adult females immerge from late June to early July. Juvenile females enter hibernation next from early to mid-August. Juvenile male ground squirrels remain active until mid-September to October.

Dates of annual events may vary by several weeks between years, and are ususlly several weeks later in more northerly and more easterly locations than in southern Alberta.

Richardson’s ground squirrels are strictly diurnal, coming above ground only during daylight hours. data Their eyes, which are adapted to make the transition from the total darkness of the burrow to the bright light above ground, have a cone-dominant retina and a pigmented lens. Consequently ground squirrels have poor vision in the dim light of dawn and dusk.

I always try and leave a few "survivors" every year. I was born and raised on a farm and remember the meaning of "fallow". At the very least if I let an area rest one year I know it will be very productive the next.

[JBinMontana]

We got a ton of those little pest down here south of the boarder from you. I usually spend many days on the farm, with plenty of target practice and really we do not even make a dent in the Richardson Ground Squirrel population.

They do have a wide range

[Ryan S Albright]

I do like shooting the little things but I don't want them eradicated. I shoot on the private fields that are over run with squirrels and let it go at that. I put in probabily three full days of shooting a year and its great fun. I have noticed the difference from year to year in areas and know that you can put a hurt on the population. The fields I hunt on have Roman plows put to them every 4 or five years in the month of August that realy puts a hurt on them.