European ground squirrel

The burrowing European ground squirrel is endemic throughout parts of central and eastern Europe. "In 2020, the International Union for Conservation of Nature declared the species endangered throughout its range in central and southeastern Europe, which extends from Poland, Germany, and Austria in the north to Bulgaria and parts of Turkey in the south. Sousliks likely spread across this area about 5,000 years ago, as Neolithic agriculture defoliated the largely forested continent, creating more of the short-grass fields, pastures, and meadows the animals prefer. Ironically, intensified farming of monoculture crops is among the reasons for their modern decline. Sousliks have also struggled as brush and trees have reclaimed abandoned pastures, and as urban and suburban development has fragmented and eliminated other habitats. And as their numbers have dropped, so too have those of some species that depend on them for food, including the now endangered saker falcon . . . [and the vulnerable imperial eagle] in Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, and Slovakia. The rodents are now considered extinct in both Croatia and Germany." Between 1998 and 2008, the population is thought to have decreased by over 30% across its range.