Professor Catherine West Alaska radio interview
New squirrels on the block? Not so fast, researchers say
Catherine West, a research assistant professor in the Archaeology Department at Boston University, said Arctic ground squirrels are voracious grazers and can strip an area of vegetation.
“They’ll prey on bird eggs and even on small birds and baby birds,” West said.
The squirrels are commonly found across the far north of Alaska.
For years, biologists believed humans introduced the squirrels to Gulf of Alaska islands in the late 1800s as food for fox farms. New research on Chirikof Island, southwest of Kodiak, however, suggests the squirrels have lived there for much longer.
Click here to hear the interview. http://www.ktoo.org/2016/12/19/new-squirrels-block-not-fast-researchers-say/