#callospermophilus

[animalids]

Golden-mantled ground squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis)

Photo by Michael Woodruff

[animalids]

Golden-mantled ground squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis)

Photo by Jon Atkinson

[northwestnaturalist]

Callospermophilus lateralis “Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel” Sciuridae

Blackfoot River Recreation Corridor (BLM), MT June 8, 2016 Robert Niese

Look at this adorable little fatling! Golden Mantled Ground Squirrels are a common, endearingly pudgy species found throughout western North America east of the cascades and Sierras. They, along with dozens of other ground squirrel species (41, to be precise), were part of the Great Ground Squirrel Generic Revision of 2009. In this taxonomic revision, mammalogists at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History determined that the mega-genus Spermophilus was likely a paraphyletic clade of 8 separate genera. Callospermophilus was one of those genera that rose from the ashes of the Spermophilus mega-genus. Today it remains a distinct genus with only three species, all of which are restricted to western North America. Here in the PNW, one of these species, C. saturatus, is endemic to the Cascade range where it likely became isolated by the Columbia River, allowing it to differentiate from its eastern sister species, C. lateralis. 

[libutron]

Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel - Callospermophilus lateralis

Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels, Callospermophilus lateralis (Sciuridae) are familiar residents of open woodlands, brushy forest-edge habitats, dry margins of mountain meadows, and rocky slopes in Canada and the United States.

Because they have a stripe on the flank, they are sometimes mistaken for chipmunks, but the stripe does not continue onto the cheek as it does in Tamias species.

Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels are solitary burrow-dwellers. They eat almost anything, including fungi, a variety of plants, fruits, and seeds, insects in all life-cycle stages, nestling birds and eggs, small mammals, and carrion.

References: [1] - [2]

Photo credit: ©Jeremy Gatten | Locality: Bow Summit, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada (2014)

[dendroica]

Two ground squirrels play-fight each other in Jasper National Park, Alberta in Western Canada. Picture: Gilles Baechler/News Dog Media (via Pictures of the day: 30 January 2014 - Telegraph)