White-tailed prairie dogs live in colonies on short prairie grassland, and Montana sits at the edge of their range, in the breaks and benches around Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, nearby prairie wildlife management areas, and the Missouri River corridor. Only fourteen records exist for the whole state, all from GBIF survey data with no iNaturalist photos, so this is a species documented mostly through fieldwork rather than casual sightings.
NatureServe ranks the species S1, critically imperiled, in Montana, its rarest possible standing here even though the species is more secure across its wider range. The few records that exist cluster in May, July, and August, which lines up with when the prairie dogs are active above ground instead of denned up for winter. That clustering reflects when field surveys happened to run, not a true population peak.
Full species profile
