prarie dogs or rock chucks

[MtnMuley]

I have never seen a prarie dog town in Washington. aint saying there are none but they are hiding. What you are seeing near Curlew sounds like rock chucks to me.
Carl

There is a place I know over there near Republic that there are several hundred of these mini-rock chuck look a like squirrels.  Deep in the mountains.  These are NOT legal to shoot, and are NOT rock chucks.

[Heredoggydoggy]

Rockchucks, or more accuratly, Yellow Bellied Marmots are legal to shoot.  The little round-eared marmots found at higher altitudes are Pikas, and are protected.  Ground Squirrels, the little pop-can sized critters are mostly found in Oregon, Idaho and Montana.  They are protected in WA, and are not very plentiful, although I've heard that some are gaining a foothold around Yakima.  Prairie Dogs are bigger than Ground Squirrels, and are found in the Eastern Plains of Montana, Wyoming, N & S Dakota, etc.  Never saw any here in WA.

[Hilltop123]

Townsend ground squirrels

[calib]

where are all thhe yellow bellied marmots

[Heredoggydoggy]

where are all thhe yellow bellied marmots

They're everywhere.  Look for rockslides,  rock outcrops on hill sides, anywhere they can set up housekeeping and see predators coming a good way off.  I've seen them come out of hibernation on warm January days and climb into trees and bushes to nibble on new buds.

[CAMPMEAT]

Tom,

Were you up near Curlew last year trying to get pictures of the sheep near the Midway bridge ? You had a rancher you were talking too and another guy pulled up in his pickup ?

Campmeat

No, that wasn't me.  Where's Midway Bridge?

It's about 11 miles west of Curlew on Toroda Creek Rd. The Big Horns are there.

[pjb3]

There are no prairie dogs in WAshington. U loved hunting them in Colorado, lots of fun

[sooperfly]

There are many places in the Pasayten that have very good populations of Columbia Ground Squirrels.  I have also seen them in several places outside the wilderness, but at a still fairly high elevation.  I frequently visit a ridgetop in the Pasayten that has colonies of these guys every few hundred yards.

Here is a picture I took in the Pasayten a few years ago, about the 6500ft level or so.




And while we're at it, a pika and hoary marmot.

   

[MtnMuley]

Great pics sooperfly!

[GUscottie]

where are all thhe yellow bellied marmots

Go to about any rock slide, or rocky hillside...I've seen them up near Leavenworth. I've also seen some in Spokane along the Spokane River...

[Heredoggydoggy]

Grat pics sooperfly!

But all the critters in the pics are protected in WA

[MtnMuley]

Grat pics sooperfly!

But all the critters in the pics are protected in WA

That's even better.  Now people know which animals they can NOT shoot.

[sooperfly]

Here's a post I did back in 2009. It's a huge file, so ya gotta wait until it loads.   
Besides family property, I have access to a bunch of different sites with a (seemingly) endless supply of 'hogs.
In my experience, the best groundhog shooting is on private property.  We'll hit each spot two or three times then leave them alone until the next year. Not uncommon to have a couple hundred targets a day present themselves.
 
http://www.rivercolor.com/images/groundhogs12008.gif