Belding's ground squirrel (Urocitellus beldingi) Also known as: Spermophilus beldingi, pot gut, sage rat, or picket-pin
Belding’s Ground Squirrels spend almost three-quarters of their lives hibernating in large underground colonies, so they have only three months a year to forage, grow, and reproduce. Females come into estrus on a single day for a few hours, which heightens male competition for mating. The males engage in brutal, wound-inflicting, and even lethal combat. They are known for their trill and whistle alarm calls, usually given by adult females. These calls alert nearby squirrels to the presence of a predator, but also alert the predator to the location of the caller, so alarm calls put the caller at risk while lessening the risk for other ground squirrels in the vicinity.
Classification Animalia - Chordata - Mammalia - Eutheria - Boreoeutheria - Euarchontoglires - Glires - Rodentia - Sciuromorpha - Sciuridae - Xerinae - Marmotini - Spermophilus - Urocitellus - U. beldingi
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