The Idaho ground squirrel lives in Idaho and nowhere else, and the record shows just how tight that range is. All 135 reports since 2000 come from four counties in the west-central part of the state: Adams leads with 69, Payette holds 31, Washington 22, and Gem 8. That’s the whole known world of a species the IUCN lists as Endangered and NatureServe ranks imperiled both globally and within the state.
The calendar tells the rest of the story. Reports pile up in April, 56 of them, right after the squirrels emerge from a hibernation that claims more than half the year, then fade by midsummer as the animals go dormant again in the heat. A short active season means few chances for anyone to log one, which is part of why the record is thin, but the four-county spread is no observer artifact: surveys have looked, and the squirrel simply doesn’t turn up beyond this pocket of rolling rangeland in west-central Idaho. Every record here carries unusual weight for a species with so little margin.
Full species profile
