Townsend's ground squirrel

Townsend's ground squirrel (Urocitellus townsendii) is a rodent of the squirrel family Sciuridae found in the high desert shrublands of the western United States, in the Great Basin and the Columbia Plateau, from south-central Washington and eastern Oregon through southern Idaho and western Utah to most of Nevada and the far east of California. Several subspecies are recognised, including the Piute ground squirrel, which is the most widely distributed, and the Snake Valley and Malheur forms. It lives in arid grassland and shrub-grassland, often near desert springs and irrigated fields, and digs burrows in deep, well-drained soil. Individuals spend seven and a half to nine months of the year dormant, emerging in late winter to breed, and a female bears one litter of six to ten pups a year. It eats mostly green vegetation and seeds, and it is an important prey species for ferruginous hawks and prairie falcons.