Northern Idaho ground squirrel

The northern Idaho ground squirrel, Urocitellus brunneus, is a ground squirrel found only in the dry meadows of Adams and Valley Counties in west-central Idaho. It was once treated as one species with the southern Idaho ground squirrel. Adults average about 233 mm in length, weigh roughly 120 to 290 grams and have a dark reddish-grey coat with reddish-brown spots, tan feet and ears and a white eye ring. The animal spends about eight months of the year in hibernation and feeds on forbs, grasses, shrubs, trees, rushes and sedges while active. Females raise one litter a year. Loss of open meadow habitat, fire suppression and past poisoning have reduced it to small isolated colonies, and it was listed as threatened under the United States Endangered Species Act in 2000. Roughly 2000 animals remain, and conservation work has the population increasing.