Rabbits and Prairie dog hunting????

[huntingdog16]

I have never hunted either of these but have been told that its very fun. I was wondering if anyone knew of good prairie dog and rabit hunting in WA(practicularly in western)??

[AWS]

I hear reports of prairie dogs around Arlington but haven't ever seen one west of SE Idaho.  There seem to be quite a few rabbits around, I see them walking out to my duck blind and the San Juans used to be a hotbed of rabbit hunting.  I come from country where it is considered unsafe to eat rabbits  until after a hard freeze and that seldom happens in W. Wash.

We do have rock chucks and ground squirrels on the east side of the state, again not my forte and I understand some species are protected.

I'm sure that others will chime in and help you with the rabbits, you might try the search as there always seems to be a thread popping up on rabbits.

[Alpinist]

There are no prairie dogs in WA State. Any reports to the contrary will turn out to be some sort of ground squirrel.

Of the 6 species of ground squirrel in WA, 3 are protected: The Golden-mantled ground squirrel (Spermophilus lateralis), the Cascade golden-mantled ground squirrel (Spermophilus saturatus), and the Washington ground squirrel (Spermophilus washingtoni). The Golden-mantled ground squirrels look a lot like chipmunks, so you would not easily mistake those. The Washington ground squirrel is a little harder to distinguish from some of the non-protected species.

The 3 non-protected ground squirrels are the California Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus beecheyi), the Columbian Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus columbianus), and Townsend`s Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus townsendii).

If you Google those species you should be able to find photos to help you distinguish them. The known range of the Washington ground squirrel does not overlap much with the non-protected species, so that should also help. You can view maps of their known ranges by looking them up on this page: http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/gap/mammals.html

A list of protected species in Washington State is here: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=232-12-011