Really? Our dachshund, Walter Disney Diamond, would be happy to ship a few squirrels to whoever is worried. (His main activity is to dash outside to angrily defend our property rights in our fence against constantly interloping squirrels.)
(p. A19) Male Arctic ground squirrels go through puberty every year. As if that wasn’t hard enough, now the females have a problem, too.
According to a paper published on Thursday [May 25, 2023] in the journal Science, climate change appears to be making them emerge from hibernation earlier. That matters, because it could throw off the timing of the animals’ mating cycle.
. . .
Any decline in squirrel populations could disrupt the local food web. Almost all Arctic predators, from wolves to eagles, rely on them as a food source.
For the full story, see:
(Note: ellipsis, and bracketed date, added.)
(Note: the online version of the story was updated May 25, 2023, and has the title “Just Between Us Squirrels, There Might Be Trouble in the Arctic Dating Scene.”)