Nevada mammals

Piute Ground Squirrel in Nevada

Urocitellus mollis

Native to Nevada S4 Apparently Secure in Nevada

Not listed as nonindigenous in Nevada by USGS NAS; native to its Nevada range.

IUCN Red List status

LC – Least Concern

Widespread and abundant; not at risk.

Photo: iNaturalist user: daver · CC BY-SA 4.0Piute ground squirrel in profile on a dirt mound in sparse desert scrubPhoto: David Robichaud · CC BY-SA 4.0Piute Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus mollis)Photo: Joseph Morlan · CC BY-SA 4.0Piute Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus mollis)

Piute Ground Squirrel in Nevada, by the numbers

Occasional in Nevada 92nd most recorded of 142 mammals logged in Nevada

162 occurrence records

11 with iNaturalist photos

Apr 8, 2025 Last seen in Nevada

When to look for the Piute Ground Squirrel in Nevada

Most sightings fall in April to June.

162 Nevada occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) by month of year. Shows when the species is recorded, not a guarantee of presence.

Monthly Nevada records (table)

Month	Records
January	1
February	1
March	18
April	37
May	46
June	43
July	15
August	1
September	0
October	0
November	0
December	0

Monthly piute ground squirrel occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in Nevada.

Seasonality

Year-round in Nevada, with recorded sightings peaking in April–June.

Occurrence map

Where Piute Ground Squirrel has been recorded in Nevada

162 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

162 Nevada records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monument	iNaturalist records
Toiyabe National Forest	1
Little High Rock Canyon Wilderness Area	1

Protected places with the most piute ground squirrel sightings, from the USGS Protected Areas Database plus named mountain ranges, good spots to look, not a full breakdown, so they don't sum to the total.

Where it's recorded in Nevada

County	Records
Humboldt County	61
Churchill County	34
Elko County	15
White Pine County	12
Eureka County	7
Lander County	7
Nye County	7
Esmeralda County	7
Washoe County	5
Lyon County	4
Pershing County	2
Lincoln County	1

The complete county distribution, spread across 12 Nevada counties. Every occurrence record falls in one county, so these sum to the total. Counties from GBIF and US Census boundaries.

Nevada records for the piute ground squirrel are anchored by Diamond Mountains and Roberts Mountains. They show where people have reported it, not how many animals live there.

The named sites give this Nevada record set more than one geographic anchor. That spread is more informative than treating the statewide total as one uniform pattern. The monthly pattern is fairly spread out rather than confined to one Nevada season. It tracks observer records and shouldn’t be read as a population count.

The file combines 11 research-grade iNaturalist records and 159 GBIF records. Those 170 records measure documented encounters, not Nevada’s population size. It’s native to Nevada. Nevada doesn’t specifically list it under the state’s conservation framework, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern.

Occurrence data from iNaturalist and GBIF.

Full species profile Piute Ground Squirrel Urocitellus mollis Size 24.5–29.4 cm9.6–11.6 in Weight 82–205 g2.9–7.2 oz View the full profile

More mammals in Nevada in the atlas

Data & sources

The data and visualizations on this page draw on these open sources:

GBIFCC-BY 4.0occurrence records behind the range map, elevation, and record counts
iNaturalistCC0 / CC-BY / CC-BY-SAobservations, photos, and audio recordings
NatureServe ExplorerCC-BYthe state conservation rank
IUCN Red Listattributed factthe global conservation status
USGS NASpublic domainnative / introduced status
Natural Earthpublic domainthe relief basemap
USFSpublic domainnational-forest boundaries
USGS Protected Areas Databasepublic domainthe named parks, forests, and refuges behind "notable places to look"