The Dental Tissues of Wild and Laboratory-raised Hibernating and Non-hibernating 13-lined Ground Squirrels

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Periodontal tissue changes were observed much more frequently in non-hibernating and hibernating ground squirrels maintained in the laboratory for 36 months than they were in wild ground squirrels captured in their natural environment. The principal changes observed in laboratory-raised ground squirrels included extensive impactions of debris between the teeth, loss of approximately 50% of the crowns of the lower posterior teeth, and severe inflammatory reactions around retained roots. Laboratory-raised hibernating ground squirrels showed pathologic disturbances similar to those observed in non-hibernating animals, but extensive inflammatory reactions, crevicular epithelial hyperplasia, pocket formation, and ulcerated papillae were observed about twice as frequently in the lower jaws of hibernating squirrel as in non-hibernating animals. Significantly more crowns were missing from the lower jaws of non-hibernating animals than from the lower jaws of the hibernating ground squirrels. No significant differences were observed among the incisor lengths of non-hibernating, hibernating, and wild ground squirrels. The study failed to provide unequivocal evidence that hibernation per se had either an adverse or a protective affect on the dental tissues of the ground squirrel.