Scientists are going nuts about ‘rare’ naked ground squirrels found near Saskatoon | 24CA News

An uncommon hairless critter has been noticed scurrying across the Saskatoon space. 

Brittnee Leveque’s son was one of many first to catch a glimpse of the mysterious rodent.

Leveque was attending a marriage at Circle H. Ranch, positioned about 10 minutes exterior of Saskatoon, when her three-year-old son known as her to return see a cat he discovered exterior. 

She went with him and was stunned to see three black, hairless rodents scurrying out and in of a gap. 

“I was like, ‘oh, those aren’t kittens,'” stated Leveque, who was attempting to determine what the creatures may very well be. 

She determined to take a video of the animals and publish it to Facebook. Her mother-in-law shared her findings on an area gardening web page. 

The publish attracted a substantial amount of consideration, as individuals tried to determine what the animals had been.

Local biologist Jenna James was lastly in a position to crack open the thriller. She recognized the creature as a Richardson’s floor squirrel — generally known as a gopher — besides these critters had been hairless. 

She reached out to colleagues and consultants to verify her findings. 

They concluded she was appropriate. 

“I’ve just never come across this before,” stated James. “Even some of the experts in this field have never seen a naked or a hairless Richardson’s ground squirrel.” 

She believes the creatures are hairless on account of a random genetic mutation that causes hairlessness in animals. She stated that this species is probably going localized and does not suppose the hairless squirrels will be seen exterior of the Saskatoon space. 

“I think it’s really quite a rare occurrence.” 

Experts have by no means seen this earlier than 

“[Hairlessness] is exceedingly rare in mammals,” stated Gail Michener, who’s a professor on the University of Lethbridge. She has studied Richardson’s floor squirrels for many years and has by no means seen something just like the critters noticed by Leveque. 

When Michener first got here to Canada from Australia, she was astonished to see how little many knew about floor squirrels.

“I just wanted to learn more about these animals and — as so often happens in science — one discovery leads to another and leads to another and I ended up spending 40 years or so studying Richardson’s ground squirrels.” 

Michener stated the hairless floor squirrels recognized close to Saskatoon could be fairly uncomfortable as they face the chance of sunburn above floor and friction under floor.

“They might have more medical problems just because they don’t have a normal coat to protect their skin and keep them safe,” stated Michener. 

And each Michener and James suppose the lifespan of those distinctive floor squirrels might be fairly quick. 

“Because they’re dark, they might be more visible to predators so I’m not expecting that they’ll do very well and might die off over the winter,” stated James. 

Still, the scientists are amazed by their existence. 

“I have never seen anything like this…it’s just so rare,” Michener stated.