Spermophilus (Poliocitellus) franklinii (Sabine 1822)

[Arctomys] franklinii Sabine 1822, Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., 13: 587.

Type Locality: None specified. Restricted by Preble (1908:165) to Carlton House, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Vernacular Names: Franklin's Ground Squirrel.

Distribution: N Great Plains; Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba (Canada), south to Kansas, Illinois, and Indiana (USA).

Conservation: IUCN – Vulnerable.

Discussion: Subgenus Poliocitellus (Hall, 1981:397) . Molecular sequence data (Harrison et al., 2003) group this species with Xerospermophilus, Ictidomys and Cynomys . Reviewed by Ostroff and Finck (2003, Mammalian Species No. 724).