Our tour is coming to an end. We have finished our circuit and returned to the deer enclosure.
If you visit Zarafshan Park between late February and July, then in the enclosure, apart from the deer, you can see a colony of yellow ground squirrels, which scurry back and forth and amusingly eat greenery while holding it with their paws.
The Yellow Ground Squirrel is the largest of the ground squirrels. It is a sandy yellow colour with a small proportion of black hair.
Ground squirrels are diurnal, their activity peaking in the morning and evening when the air is cool. The Yellow Ground Squirrel feeds on ephemeral plants, bulbs, and tubers, as well as the seeds and shoots of wormwood and cereals. During the period when ground squirrels accumulate fat, they forage almost throughout the daytime. The Yellow Ground Squirrel does not drink water: the moisture in food is enough for it. It does not make food reserves.
In the national park, where the climate is milder and cooler than in the desert, the animals enter the summer-winter hibernation later – in early-mid-July. They breed once a year, mating immediately after waking up from hibernation. Pregnancy lasts 3-4 weeks and females usually have 7 to 9 babies.
The ground squirrels typically live in groups, but each individual has a separate burrow and its own plot of land. Usually, the animals rebuild their burrow every season or dig a new one next to the old burrow, leaving mounds of earth near the entrances.
In case of danger, ground squirrels take on their characteristic upright posture and whistle shrilly.
All the members of the colony foraging nearby immediately hide in their burrows.
