Rock Squirrel

Rock squirrels are big, bushy-tailed ground squirrels of the Southwest and Mexico, and they live where the name says — canyon walls, cliff faces, talus and boulder piles, and the rock cuts along roads. Mottled grayish-brown above and buff-white below, with the head and shoulders going black in some populations, they run about a foot and a half long with nearly half of that in tail. They scale sheer rock at speed, climb trees almost like a tree squirrel, and like to feed and sun on a high rock with a view, giving a sharp, clear, repeated whistle when alarmed. Diurnal and shy, busiest early and late, they pack acorns, nuts, mesquite beans, juniper berries, and cactus home in oversized cheek pouches, take grasshoppers and the odd small bird, and in cold country sleep out two to four months of winter.