site.bta Campaign Raises Funds for Restoring Ground Squirrel Colonies in Rhodope Area

Campaign Raises Funds for Restoring Ground Squirrel Colonies in Rhodope Area


Sofia, January 5 (BTA) - A campaign by the Europe-wide network
for wild nature, Rewilding Europe, and the local organization
Wilder Rhodope are trying to bring back the susliks, or European
 ground squirrels, to lands where they used to live, in the
foothills of the Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria. Susliks are
vitally important to a wide range of rare raptors and predators,
 but they have increasingly disappeared over the last decades.
When they disappear, so do a long row of birds of prey that are
dependent on the susliks.

Rewilding Europe and Wilder Rhodope are now buying up parcels of
 land that is of top value for the suslik colonies, to make sure
 these keystone animals thrive and can spread back to their old
grounds.

Having started just before Christmas of 2014, the campaign aims
to raise 25,000 euro for the purchase of 10 ha of key suslik
habitat.  Donation options start from 5 euro.

In some parts of Rhodope foothills, ground squirrels are
disappearing because there are no large herbivores grazing there
 anymore, neither domestic nor wild, whilst in other parts they
disappear because of the ploughing up of suslik habitat - often
a result of harmful EU farming subsidies, leading to pretend
farming on pasture lands that have never been ploughed before,
Rewilding Europe says. Also, the planting of crops lake
sunflower and water melon close to suslik colonies cause
conflicts since the squirrels are often seen as causing damage
to the crops and farmers use traps and poison to get rid of
them.

The suslik is one of the keystone species in the dry steppe
ecosystems. They live in colonies in holes in the ground, right
out on the open steppe and are normally pretty good at
reproducing -as long as there is space for them. This is
something that make them very popular with all possible kinds of
 predators, from weasels and snakes all the way up to jackals
and wolves, not to mention the whole array of about 25 species
of raptors, where the eastern imperial eagle is maybe the most
specialized on susliks.

Susliks really only need two things: large grazing herbivores to
 eat away the long and dry grass so that they can graze the
short and greener grass, and they need land to live and feed
that is not ploughed or bulldozed.

The campaign has so far raised 6 per cent of the target sum. It
will be on until the end of January 2015.