Merriam's ground squirrel is one of the two small gray ground squirrels in Oregon without stripes or spots.

Most of the geographic range of this squirrel is in Oregon, where it occurs south and east of a line connecting Huntington, North Powder, Maupin, Warm Springs, Bend, and Fort Rock, Summer Lake, and Plush. This species does not occur south of the North Fork Owyhee River in Malheur County.

These ground squirrels emerge in early March, breed, rear their young, become exceedingly fat and go into their hibernacula by early August.

Photo by ©John Rakestraw