Washington’s 65 California ground squirrel records cluster along the state’s southern rim, with Klickitat County holding 36 and Yakima County 21. Gifford Pinchot National Forest and the Klickitat Wildlife Area Complex account for much of the mapped range, a band of open pine-oak country above the Columbia River where this western species reaches the northern edge of its distribution.
A burrower of open ground
California ground squirrels live colonially in loose, well-drained soils, excavating burrow systems under rocks, stumps, and fencelines in grassland and open woodland. They eat seeds, green vegetation, and insects, and they are famously bold around their burrow mouths, sitting upright to scan for hawks and calling at the first sign of trouble. In Washington that habitat hugs the Columbia Gorge and the dry valleys just north of it, which is exactly where the state’s records sit.
Underground through the cold months
These squirrels hibernate, and Washington’s record shows it. Sightings vanish in January and December and stay scarce until spring, then climb to their yearly high in July, when newly weaned young emerge and the whole colony is above ground at once. By late fall the colony has slipped back below.
Status in Washington
This species is treated as native to its mapped Washington range, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here. It is not specifically listed under Washington’s state-level conservation framework, and the IUCN lists it globally as Least Concern.
Full species profile
