Golden-mantled ground squirrel

The golden-mantled ground squirrel is a strikingly marked ground squirrel of western North America, found in Canada and the United States from southeast British Columbia and southwest Alberta into the western United States, as far east as western Colorado and south to northwestern New Mexico and southern California. A golden-red mantle covers the head and shoulders, and one white stripe bordered by two black stripes runs along the body, much like a chipmunk, although it has a whitish eye ring and no facial striping. Adults weigh 120 to 394 grams and measure 235 to 295 millimetres. It lives from about 1,200 to 3,965 metres in mixed coniferous forest, forest-edged meadows, rocky slopes and southern Californian chaparral, and is common in campgrounds where it takes handouts. It is omnivorous, eating pine nuts, seeds, fungi, insects and some small animals, and it hibernates where the ground freezes or is covered with snow. Females bear two to eight pups after a gestation of 26 to 33 days. It can harm conifer regrowth and is a reservoir of Colorado tick fever and plague.