When in the spring do Prairie Dogs and Ground Squirrels first start to appear in numbers in you neck of the woods?

Is the Utah Prairie Dog an endangered spieces?

http://www.orecity.k12.or.us/ochs/departments/science/species/utah_pdog.html

I usually limit myself to the Pot Guts in the mountains. They are smaller than the Prairie Dog but more numerous. When you find them, there are usually hundreds of them in any one area. Usually only 2-3 weeks after the snow is gone they are out in numbers.

I was wondering how far other Prairie Dog Species range and what time of year do they first appear.

I just checked with the Division of Wildlife in Utah. The Prairie dog now have a season --- You cannot hunt them April 1st thru June 15th.

Also, the Utah Prairie Dog is on the endagered list, you can't hunt it at all, the other two spiecs, the Gunnison and White Tail are open during those dates.

http://www.wildlife.utah.gov/news/06-03/prairie_dogs.php

Yes, and then only the Bulls

I'm in California so our ground squirrels are out year round. Right now the grass is green and long but the pups are coming out so the shooting is great.

DAMN the Anti's!

They got UT too??

No closed season in CO, just can't shoot them on ANY public lands ever. Didn't know they'd gotten into other states too. Just too many weak kneed politicians won't stand up to the anti's is the only reason. Clinton's left overs did it.

Now that Norton is gone, don't know how we'll ever get it changed back. Wish I'd thought about it, would have written Gayle.

Even when the snow's on the ground, when the sun's out, the p'dogs are out around here. About the only requirement is that the sun is out in winter. In the rest of the year, they're out unless it's storming.

Didn't see the females out last weekend. but, I didn't shoot either. Think they might be in the hole havin pups now. Will be going out before long to cut down on the herds.

George

I headed out on the western deserts of Utah over the Easter weekend. Saturday was beautiful, however, Sunday was a different story. Winds to 70mph made shooting rather difficult.......... Can you say drift...... Oh well the little buggers are everywhere -- "pot guts" --- Not much red mist, maybe in a few weeks.

AI22,

What are the "pot guts" you are referring to? I'm assuming you are out off I-80 by Dell or somewhere like that. What are those little "lizard" type things out in the desert? Do you know what those things are called?

They are smaller the PD's about 7-8" tall, usually thousands of them in the desert this time of year, they like to hang around old dumps or just out in the open desert. Not really in towns, just everywhere. Can't tell you how many I've shot over the years. They are even in the mountains. And yes the area around Dell has a few of them too. But there are to many 4 wheelers and motorcycles.

As far as Lizards, there are a number of different spieces out there. Regular lizards we grew up with, they usually had two blue patchs on their underside. There are some called "tiger whip tails". They are much longer and black and white stripped. Some times they reach 12"s or more in lenght and they are fast, hard to catch, they like to bite, but no teeth.... Just fun. Also a few "horny toads". They are small almost round, flat short legged lizards with small spikes over their bodies and two larger spikes over their eyes. They are slower and easy to catch, but I gave most of that up 40yrs. ago.... I've found a number of Rattle snakes out near Dell and areas south. Side winders were common years ago, but I haven't seen any for a long time. None of these names are "scientific", really, their just names we called them.
I'm 57yrs old now, just a little hard to be chasing lizards. But, hell I sure do love to shoot.