The golden-mantled ground squirrel lives from woodlands to alpine meadows in western North America and makes burrows in rocks or underground.
It has white side stripes edged in black, a reddish-brown head and shoulders, and a pale yellow underside.
In the high-elevation Sierra Nevada of California, researchers compared three ground-squirrel species using 5,879 occurrence records. Their models combined climate, topography, and land cover. Conifer presence was an important factor for the golden-mantled ground squirrel. Elevation and slope also contributed to habitat differences among the three species.
Precipitation contributed to the modeled niches of all three species, but in different directions. Wetter conditions were linked to lower suitability for golden-mantled ground squirrels and yellow-bellied marmots, but the pattern was reversed for Belding’s ground squirrels.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The study links golden-mantled ground-squirrel habitat with climate, terrain, and land cover. The authors recommend considering these factors together when projecting future habitat distributions.