This is a boulder-and-crevice specialist, denning in rock cracks rather than digging burrows the way most ground squirrels do, so a canyon wall or rocky outcrop near the Snake River corridor is a better bet than open grassland for finding one. Idaho holds the lowest record count of any state across the species’ rocky Southwest range: just 11 sightings, the tail end of a range centered on Arizona and Texas.
Seven of those 11 came from iNaturalist photos, unusual for a species this thin on the ground here, meaning people have actually managed to photograph most of Idaho’s known sightings rather than relying only on trap or specimen records. Records cluster in June and July, five sightings in July alone, though with a sample this small that reads as when people were looking rather than a real activity peak.
NatureServe still ranks the species S4, Apparently Secure, in Idaho despite the tiny local sample, reflecting how broad and stable its range is across the rest of the Southwest.
Full species profile
