More than a thousand Montana records make the Richardson’s ground squirrel one of the most documented small mammals in the state. Nearly half of them, 481, come from Gallatin County alone. That lopsidedness is the classic signature of a colonial rodent living beside people. The open valleys around Bozeman are prime squirrel habitat and prime observer country at once. Madison, Park, Cascade, and Jefferson counties trail well behind. The record fades toward the dry northeast.
The calendar is the cleanest part of the record. Reports appear in March, spike hard in June, and are gone by October. That cycle leaves the squirrels invisible underground for more than half the year. The June bulge is when newly emerged juveniles make every colony busy at once. NatureServe ranks the species secure in Montana. With a record this deep and broad, that judgment rests on solid ground.
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