Idaho is the heart of this squirrel’s range, and the record shows it: 853 reports since 2000 across 22 counties, running from the Palouse in Latah County (97) through the big central counties of Idaho (112), Valley (78), and Adams (58) to the Panhandle’s Kootenai (72) and Bonner (51). The Kaniksu, Coeur d’Alene, and Boise national forests all carry double-digit place totals, a sign of how routinely this squirrel turns up on open mountain ground.
The calendar is as informative as the geography. Reports sit near zero from September through February, because Columbian ground squirrels spend most of the year underground in hibernation, then surge from a March emergence to a June and July peak, when adults and new young are all above ground at once. NatureServe ranks the species apparently secure in Idaho, and nothing in a record this broad argues otherwise. The counts still track where people hike and drive, so read the cluster as a busy minimum, not a full accounting.
Full species profile
