Range: Western United States and Canada. In the area covered by this book to be found in western Colorado, from northeastern Utah south through central Utah to central Arizona thence east into western New Mexico. [Illustration: Habitat map] Habitat: Higher mountains of this area. Usually found in evergreen forests of the Transition, Hudsonian, and Canadian Life Zones. It sometimes occurs near the upper limits of the Upper Sonoran Zone. Description: A chipmunk-like ground squirrel lacking the stripes along the sides of the face characteristic of the chipmunks. Total length 8½ to 12½ inches. Tail 2½ to 4½ inches. There is much color variation in this species. Head coppery to chestnut, upper surfaces of body brownish gray to buffy. A light to white stripe bordered with black is present on each side of the back. Under surface of tail gray to yellow. Tail short but fully haired. Under surfaces of body lighter, gray to buffy gray. Legs short, body chunky in comparison with chipmunks. Young, four to eight, with but one litter each year. The golden-mantled ground squirrel has been chosen from the rather large group of southwestern ground squirrels because it is most typically a mountain dwelling species. As such it does not have the advantages of a long summer season like its lowland relatives. This results in two definite periods each year. One is feverish activity during summer, a time of breeding, rearing the young, storing food, and laying on fat for the cold months ahead. The other in winter is the exact opposite—a long interval of hibernation when, buried deep under the snow in a snug burrow, the squirrels sleep away the winter. Though hampered by the short summers of higher elevations, the golden-mantled ground squirrels manage to lengthen the season slightly by a very simple expedient. Instinct prompts them to dig their burrows on a southern exposure, often under the base of a log or in a rock slide. Here the snow melts away first and they often have a bare spot of ground in front of the burrow several weeks in advance of the season. The squirrels emerge from their long sleep weak and emaciated, and their first days above ground are spent soaking up the warm sunshine and waking up, so to speak. During this period they live on stores laid away the previous summer, and by the time the snow has melted they are fully active and ready for mating. [Illustration: golden-mantled ground squirrel]