(Betsy Bloom/Daily News photo) Thirteen-lined ground squirrels become independent by six to 12 weeks of age. Adults are larger than a chipmunk and the tale is shorter and less bushy.

Is this the next squirrel species to establish itself in the northwoods?

This is a young 13-lined ground squirrel. It wasn’t willing to show its back, which is streaked with stripes and lines of spots, hence the name. It hung around the front door for awhile Saturday, then moved on and hasn’t been seen since. We do have a resident weasel, though I’m hoping it simply found other accommodations more to its liking.

But its presence means it — and others of its kind — probably aren’t far away. Thirteen-lined ground squirrels become independent by six to 12 weeks of age, according to online sources, so this one can’t have been born that long ago or been able to explore much of its world yet.

Though originally a creature of the prairie grasslands, 13-lined ground squirrels have been steadily expanding their range as land was cleared for agriculture and human habitation.

I’d seen 13-lined ground squirrels not far from Six Mile Lake, at the North Dickinson County School on M-69. That made sense, as it has a wide open expanse of the school grounds. I’d also photographed one a few years ago in the Quinnesec cemetery — again, a large, open, grassy area.

But one this far out in the woods seemed like quite the push for a squirrel that doesn’t usually favor forests. Then again, Six Mile Lake does have its share of homes with good-sized lawns.

Brian Roell, a Michigan Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist, mentioned in 2020 of “a bumper crop” of 13-lined ground squirrels perhaps contributing to an apparent rise in predators that year.

This could be a continuation of that trend.

Thirteen-lined ground squirrels in the Upper Peninsula actually date back to the early 1900s, when they are thought to have crossed in from Wisconsin as land was cleared by loggers and homesteaders, according to a 2017 article by John Pepin, a public information officer for the Michigan DNR.

“Eventually, they were found in Menominee, Iron, Dickinson and Marquette counties and may be continuing their expansion in the region,” Pepin wrote.

Still, a fair number of U.P. residents might be hard-pressed to say they’ve seen one. Pepin pointed out in his article he couldn’t remember coming across one earlier in Marquette before the encounter at the Marquette County Fair.

It might also be a matter of not knowing what to look for, or perhaps mistaking this squirrel at first glance for a chipmunk.

An adult 13-lined ground squirrel is larger than a chipmunk, paler, with less reddish color. Ears are smaller, the tail is less bushy.

Like chipmunks, the 13-lined ground squirrel hibernates in a burrow in winter, so they’re capable of surviving in the northern climate. They, too, will stash away food for consuming during those months underground.

They will mate soon after emerging from hibernation, with the females giving birth to an average of about eight young roughly a month later, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources website. Females may bear a second litter later in the summer after the first batch disperses.

They need that extra reproduction, because “they are a favored prey of hawks, owls, foxes, coyotes, weasels and snakes,” the Minnesota DNR site states. All of which they’ll face here as well.

Yet, each online site about the 13-lined ground squirrel observed they are expanding their range “and they now live anywhere some grassland exists,” according to the Minnesota DNR. (A side note from the Minnesota DNR: This is the animal behind the University of Minnesota’s “Golden Gophers” team name.)

So it perhaps shouldn’t be so surprising to find them turning up at Six Mile Lake and other breaks between the forests. Nor do they seem prone to be a nuisance — in some areas they have been known to damage agricultural crops but that’s about it.

And unlike gray squirrels — which also rode human habitation into areas where they’d been rare — they don’t seem to pose a threat of outcompeting any native species.

So I’ll look forward to seeing if they’ll manage to thrive here.

Betsy Bloom can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 240, or bbloom@ironmountaindailynews.com.