6 
THE CALIFORNIA (JROUND SQUIRREL. 
of dollars annually, can ho readily appreciated. (Jround s(iuirrels 
are })articularly fond of <2;reen almonds and of tlie })its of <]:reen j)eaches 
and apricots, eating these from the time the kernel begins to form 
until the fruit is ripe, thus doing serious damage. They are very 
ilestructive to apples also, and in places in the foothills of the Coif ax- 
Auburn region are said to take fully half the crop. 
They injure vineyards by gnawing off the young shoots. In the 
fall of 1907 E. A. Goldman reported that they were doing serious 
damage to young vineyards about Orosi, in Tulare County, by biting 
oflp the leaves and tender shoots of the vines. At first they worked 
chiefly along the borders of vineyards, proceeding inward as the}^ 
defoliated the vines, leaving a sharp line of demarcation to show the 
progress of their invasion. In 1909 S. E. Piper reported that in the 
case of a 20-acre vineyard planted about 8 miles northeast of Modesto 
they completely destroyed 5 acres. 
At times they injure both almond and orange trees by gnawing the 
bark. In the orange groves between Portersville and Springville, in 
Tulare County, it is reported that they occasionally gnaw the bark of 
the orange trees and sometimes cut the fruit and carry it off.'^ 
Besides destroying nuts and fresh fruits the}^ attack drying 
prunes and carry off large quantities. 
But the principal money loss attributed to ground squirrels results 
from their depredations on grain. The}^ devour barley, wheat, and 
oats when the seed is first sown; they dig up and carry awa}^ the 
sprouting kernels; they invade the fields of ripening grain and feast 
upon it continuously until harvest time ; and when it is cut and stacked 
they concentrate about the stacks and attack it vigorously, eating all 
they can and laboring tirelessly to carry the remainder to their under- 
ground storehouses. At a single stack near Jamesburg, in ^lonterey 
County, a few years ago 300 ground squirrels were caught in traps and 
many more poisoned; and in July, 1907, Vernon Bailey saw fully 200 
about a barley stack at Capistrano, in Orange County. They 
climbed to the top of the stack and dragged down the grain until it 
formed a windrow 2 or 3 feet high. At the same place two years 
later S. E. Piper counted 158 squirrels in sight at one time. 
When operating in grain fields, they usually first clear off the grain 
around the borders of the field, cutting a swath 40 or 50 feet in width, 
and then establish burrows or colonies of burrows in various parts of 
the interior. 
Another kind of injury inflicted by ground squirrels results from 
their habit of burrowing in embankments. In the flat country they 
seek small elevations from which they can better observe the approach 
« An effective method of poisoning them in this region is by cutting oranges in 
half and smearing the surface over with finely powdered strychnine. These poisoned 
half oranges are then placed close to the burrows of the squirrels. 
