Hi
I’m looking again for help from the Mammal Watching community and this time about a trip I did to Colorado in July 2019
I’m usually quite bad at identifying rodents and since I observed quite a few different ones during this trip I was hopping someone could help me with the confirmation or identification of some species, particularly chipmumks, we observed in the Rocky Mountain NP and Mount Evans.
In the pdf document with pictures that I’m joining to my post, I think the first 4 rodents are properly identified. For Rodent #5, I think this is a black tailed prairie dogs that we observed in Boulder but since I don’t see the black tip on the tail, I have some doubts. Regarding the chipmunk (rodents #6 to 9) that are all different individuals seen in different places, I have hard time to conclude between Uinta, Colorado or least chipmunk. For the last rodent #10, I have no idea: I would assume a vole but which species? What I can say is that it was small, very shy and observed at very high elevation almost at the summit of Mount Evans.
Thanks in advance for your help
Regards
Samuel
I will leave the chipmunks to others braver than me. But the last species is a Pika. (Ochotona princeps)
Thanks Jon but are you sure because we saw several American pikas during that trip and they were all significantly larger and more grey than this one
Pretty sure unless it was mouse size tiny in which case I have no idea… I assume it was tailless? The colour is quite variable – they are greyer in winter I think.
It was indeed very small and as far as I can tell, yes, I didn’t see any tail
Gunnison’s Prairie dog, perhaps
Gunnison’s Prairie dog perhaps?
I thought this species wasn’t present in Boulder (where we saw it), are they?
The range map is close and barring the color on the tail is why I suggested that.
Ah ok. Interesting.
I have previously seen pikas. This was a photo that you took
Ok. There seems to be a consensus here. Maybe a juvenile considering its size? Thanks everyone