The Rio Grande ground squirrel was only recently recognized as its own species, separate from other spotted ground squirrels of the southern Plains, and it isn’t yet formally evaluated by the IUCN. In the United States it’s known only from New Mexico and Texas, with reports here gathering along the Pecos River corridor, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, and the Guadalupe Mountains, southeastern New Mexico country with the open, sandy ground this burrower favors.
Records run heaviest from April through August and drop to almost nothing from November through February, a pattern that fits a ground squirrel spending the cold months underground rather than a real absence. NatureServe rates it S2, Imperiled, in New Mexico, a genuine conservation concern given how narrow its range is.
