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Xerospermophilus spilosoma
The Spotted ground squirrel is one of the smallest squirrels in North America. They create tunnels to store its food, as well as shelter and hibernation quarters. Large black eyes with a white eye ring, white underbelly, brown back with white spots.
Spotted at the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
The spotted ground squirrel can range from south central South Dakota, through Nebraska where it inhabits sand hills present there. It's also found in eastern Colorado, northwestern Oklahoma, western Texas, eastern Arizona, western Kansas, the large majority of New Mexico and the southeastern part of Utah. Mexico species distribution is limited to south and central Mexico. (Wikipedia)
Spotted on Oct 15, 2019
Submitted on Oct 18, 2019
14 Comments
Fabulous series Brian. I imagine they would be entertaining to watch.
Congrats on the nomination Brian. Again, great series.
Thank you Ashley for the nomination.
Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!
Thanks for commenting Sukanya and Tukup. New for me as well Tukup.
Wow, that's a new ground squirrel for me. Nice series Brian. Thanks.
Awww...so cute!
Thank you ornithoptera80 and Jae.
Great footage, Brian38!
nice series,love the New Mexico wildlife(:
Thank you Daniele. Their small ears are Interesting as well. They look to be lobbed on top. Wikipedia says they have 7 different alert postures. Not sure if any of these pics shows any. I find postures and gestures in animals so fascinating.
Their eyes take half of their faces! Hard to resist ;-) Great series as always Brian.
Thanks so much Greg. I had so much fun at this wildlife refuge. I was only there for 4 hours and was lucky to get pictures of the ground squirrels before they went down in their holes.
Brilliant spotting all the captures are amazing Brian.