Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels

Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel in Yosemite National Park

I find golden-mantled ground squirrels the easiest of all squirrels to photograph.  They occur throughout the mountain areas of the western United States, so I see them almost everywhere I go when I am travelling there in summer.  These squirrels are usually not wary of humans so readily allow a photographer to approach them.  And campgrounds are favored foraging areas.

A real 'Copperhead' in the Eastern Sierra

Siblings Interacting (Colorado)

Playing and Grooming

We watched these young squirrels playing in a camping area in Colorado for several days, under the watchful eye of their mother.  However, on our last day, the adult disappeared and her offspring dispersed to different areas where they searched for food separately.  Now if one young squirrel encountered another, it would chase the intruder away.  Food gathering is an important activity later in summer as although these squirrels hibernate for much of the winter, they also hoard food in their burrows to see them through either unusually warm or cold periods, when they wake to feed.

Here are a couple more images of young golden-mantled ground squirrels photographed in Wyoming:

Surprised!

Natural food

 There must be something interesting in there......

In Yosemite National Park

Looks like he's found it......

All the photographs so far have been of the most widespread golden-mantled squirrel. This is Callospermophilus lateralis, which occurs in higher areas from Arizona and New Mexico to Canada.  Another species, with less distinctive dark side stripes, Callospermophilus saturatus, is found only in the Cascade Mountains of Washington and southern British Columbia.  There is a third species in northern Mexico.

This squirrel has been collecting nesting material for its burrow:

Cascade Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel in Mt Rainier National Park

Cascade Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel in Mt Rainier National Park

Notice that the colour of the fur varies markedly in both species of squirrel.

Thirteen-Lined Ground Squirrel

Thirteen-lined ground squirrel

The thirteen-lined ground squirrel is one of my favourite squirrels, although I have seen it on only two occasions.  It is beautifully marked, and is well camouflaged among the vegetation of the short grass prairie where it resides.  I was able to photograph this squirrel in a rest area in southern Wyoming where a colony had established and was taking advantage of the well-watered grass and occasional titbits from passing travellers.  My other sighting was a more distant view on the prairie of the Pawnie Grasslands in Eastern Colorado.

Thirteen-lined ground squirrels feed on grasshoppers as well as on grass and seeds, are active during summer, and like many squirrels, hibernate through winter.  They are very wary of predators, as although their spotted coats generally provides good camouflage, on the open prairie they are vulnerable to coyotes and birds of prey.  So as not to give away the location of their burrows, the squirrels carry away the excavated soil in their mouths rather than leaving a pile of dirt by the entrance.  They also tamp down grass and soil into the entrance to help conceal it.