Golden-mantled ground squirrel
A chipmunk-lookalike ground squirrel with a reddish-gold head and shoulders and no face stripes, common on rocks and trailsides from Glacier to Mesa Verde.
Golden-mantled ground squirrel at a glance
Callospermophilus lateralis KAL-oh-sper-MOFF-ih-lus lat-er-AL-iss
- Type
- Mammal · rodent
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Size
- About as long as a submarine sandwich, 9 to 12 inches nose to tail (23 to 30 cm), weighing 7.4 to 17.5 ounces (210 to 500 g) depending on the season — it is heaviest right before hibernation and lightest after.
- Lifespan
- Up to about 7 years in the wild.
- Conservation
- Least concern
Eats fungi, seeds, nuts, buds, roots, bird eggs, insects, carrion
Fungi and the leaves of flowering plants make up about 87 percent of its diet; it rounds that out with buds, seeds, nuts, roots, bird eggs, insects, and carrion when it finds it.
Should you worry?
None. It's a bold, common trailside animal that will approach for food, which is exactly why rangers ask visitors not to feed it — a squirrel used to handouts can lose its fear of people and become a nuisance or get hurt.
Stand still at an overlook in Rocky Mountain in August and a golden-mantled ground squirrel will eventually climb onto the rock beside you, cheeks already working on something it found nearby. It looks close enough to a chipmunk that the two get mixed up constantly, but check the face: no stripes cross its cheeks or eyes, just a plain gold head fading into gray-brown shoulders. A chipmunk wears a mask. This animal doesn’t.
That constant foraging isn’t casual. Fungi and the leaves of flowering plants make up roughly 87 percent of its diet, and by the end of summer a golden-mantled ground squirrel will have roughly tripled its own body weight, packing on fat for a stretch of hibernation that can run from October to March or April. Unlike a bear, which just gets sleepy, this squirrel goes fully dormant underground for months at a stretch, living entirely off what it managed to eat in the warm months. Every mouthful stuffed into those cheeks at an August overlook is doing arithmetic for a winter with no food at all.
That math is also why rangers keep asking people not to feed them. A squirrel that’s spent millions of years learning exactly how much fat it needs by October doesn’t benefit from a handful of trail mix that throws the calculation off, and one that’s lost its wariness around people is a squirrel more likely to get stepped on or reach into the wrong hand. The animal on the rock beside you is working. Let it keep working.
Did you know?
- A golden-mantled ground squirrel roughly triples its body weight over the summer to survive up to six months of underground hibernation without eating.
- The easiest way to tell it apart from a chipmunk isn't the gold shoulders — it's the face. A chipmunk has stripes across its cheeks and eyes; this squirrel's face is plain.
- About 87 percent of its diet is fungi and the leaves of flowering plants, which it finds partly by smell, digging up underground fungi it can't even see.
Common questions
Is a golden-mantled ground squirrel a chipmunk?
No, though it's easy to confuse them. The real difference is the face — a chipmunk has stripes across its cheeks and eyes, while this squirrel's face is plain gold with no stripes.
How does it survive winter?
By hibernating. It roughly triples its body weight over the summer eating fungi, seeds, and nuts, then sleeps underground from around October to March or April living off that fat.
Are golden-mantled ground squirrels dangerous to kids?
No. They're bold and will approach people looking for food, but rangers ask visitors not to feed them so they don't lose their natural caution.
What do golden-mantled ground squirrels eat?
Mostly fungi and plant leaves — about 87 percent of their diet — plus seeds, nuts, buds, roots, insects, and the occasional bird egg.
What eats a golden-mantled ground squirrel?
Hawks, owls, coyotes, bobcats, skunks, weasels, and snakes. It listens for alarm calls, including those of yellow-bellied marmots, and dives into cover when one sounds.