104 Ground squirrels

Slagiatt said:
Not sure which species of ground squirrel (we call them whistle pigs) this is, but its what we have around here. On private property theyre target practice. On public lands i leave the little suckers alone. These 2 were hanging around mytruck where i was camping and glassing for bears in northern idaho. They were all about licking the salt off my pistachio shells, and that was just fine with me. But i dont tolerate them tearing up my lawn at home for a minute.View attachment 17845
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I don't think that is the same thing I am shooting. I don't know what its real name is. In your photo, those squirrels have much darker and varied coloring, the tail also looks longer.
 
Slagiatt said:
Gophers are a totally different critter, not much bigger than a mouse around here. Im running a damn gopher farm here. Been trying to eradicate them unsuccessfully for years. Killed them with .22s, shovels, my boots, etc. Finnally gave up on eradicating them. Still infesting my backyard. My new game these last few years is just to make their lives as miserable as possible. I go out back and pee in their holes until they backfill them and make a new hole, then i start peeing in that one. Wash rinse repeat. May not solve the problem but i find it quite satisfying.View attachment 17846
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Yeah for some reason everyone up here calls em gophers. The odd time I hear about pocket gophers and guys just say they are different.
Need to get some traps maybe? If your pee trick doesn't work that is haha.
 
Slagiatt said:
Not sure which species of ground squirrel (we call them whistle pigs) this is, but its what we have around here. On private property theyre target practice. On public lands i leave the little suckers alone. These 2 were hanging around mytruck where i was camping and glassing for bears in northern idaho. They were all about licking the salt off my pistachio shells, and that was just fine with me. But i dont tolerate them tearing up my lawn at home for a minute.View attachment 17845
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Those are rock squirrels, as said whistle pigs are marmots. The other pic is a pocket gopher rarely see out of their tunnels, give away is fine topsoil piles on top of the ground.
 
We had Rock Squirrels in Colorado. To make sure it wasn't a colloquial name, I looked them up. The rock squirrels we had in Colorado were the size of an Gray Squirrel from back east, with a long bushy tail, but with a mottled color and thinner fur on the tail, kind of dirty looking. That's what I saw on wikipedia, like a Gray Squirrel.

I think there are many varities of ground squirrel, some are even protected in Idaho. Fortunately the Wyoming ground squirrels are not protected, too much fun to shoot.

Now, I need to look up Pocket Gopher, not sure I have ever seen those.
 
Monster Toms said:
Those are rock squirrels, as said whistle pigs are marmots. The other pic is a pocket gopher rarely see out of their tunnels, give away is fine topsoil piles on top of the ground.
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Columbian ground squirrel. Columbian ground squirrel - Wikipedia

But lots of people out here call em whistle pigs. Just local terminology, same as people elsewhere calling roch chucks whistle pigs. Thats just locak terminology too. Whistle pig isnt an official name for anything anywhere.
 
I have been going to eastern Oregon for years. Shoot beldings ground squirrels (Sage Rats) and Rock Chucks. Occasional Badger.
Great shoot two weeks ago. Sure like my 22-250.
 
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