habitat_narrative
Terrestrial
They have a preference for open terrain with little bush cover and a substrate suitable for burrowing, occurring on open calcareous ground on the fringes of dry pans, watercourses and floodplains, on open overgrazed ground, and in open grassland or karroid areas, providing the substrate is suitable (Skinner & Chimimba 2005). They avoid extremely loose sandy areas for making their burrows but are found burrowing near the dunes of the Kalahari Desert in stable zones. They are locally common along the edges of salt pans or at old kraal sites and overgrazed patches, and there are isolated colonies occurring in the northern bushveld regions (Power 2014).They are diurnal, and highly social, with males forming all-male groups that are essentially independent of female groups except during breeding. There are social hierarchies in both groups but these are more developed in the female groups (Wilson 1996). Individual vigilance during foraging decreases with group size (Edwards & Waterman 2011). Breeding can occur year-round, and females are capable of having up to three litters of one to two young annually, where orphans are often adopted by related females in the same group (J. Waterman unpubl. data). Although it has been postulated that their parasol-like tails are used to decrease body temperature whilst foraging during the day, new data suggest that the tail simply provides comfort during the heat of the day and that they retreat into burrows to dissipate a heat load and remain active diurnally (Fick et al. 2009). Unlike the Damara Ground Squirrel (Xerus princeps), this species has no arboreal tendencies and is purely ground-living (Skinner & Chimimba 2005). They are predominantly herbivorous (leaves, grass stems, seeds, bulbs, roots and plant stems), being able to digest cellulose, but do eat insects (Skinner & Chimimba 2005).
The âlandscape of fearâ for this species has been quantified in Augrabies Falls National Park, Northern Cape Province (van der Merwe & Brown 2008): among three colonies, only 3â22% of the space resulted in low foraging costs while 31â92% of the sampled areas represented very high foraging costs. Overall, they are a resilient and dynamic species, being able to adapt their home range size and reproductive output in response to drought conditions (Waterman & Fenton 2000), and thus will likely be able to adapt to climate change in the future.
Ecosystem and cultural services: Many other species (for example, Suricates Suricata suricata and Yellow Mongooses Cynictis penicillata) use the burrows of Cape Ground Squirrels for refuge, suggesting they are ecological engineers (Waterman & Roth 2007). Furthermore, in central South Africa and the Namib desert grasslands, controlled, replicated studies revealed increased diversity and abundance of small mammals and invertebrates in burrow areas and a higher abundance of plants (Ewacha et al. 2016). Thus, the burrowing and foraging behaviour of this species creates habitat for plant and animal communities. However, Power (2014) found no evidence of enhanced small mammal diversity in relation to Ground Squirrel burrow clusters in three landscapes.
