Idaho

Owyhee Canyonlands

Although I knew Idaho was famous for its potatoes, trout fishing and scenery, I didn’t know much about its mammals until 2008 when I started corresponding with Matt Miller. It quickly became apparent that not only was Matt a nice guy and knew his mammals, but Idaho was also a good place to visit, particularly if I wanted to see an American Badger.  I did. And Matt was generous enough to invite me to stay and try to show me one.

In September 2009 I had the opportunity to spend a weekend there during a work trip to Seattle. I went back again for a weekend in April 2010 with my kids for a Ground Squirrel Safari.

The Ground Squirrel window of opportunity each year is quite restricted and late spring is the best time to see most species. Beldings (Urocitellus beldingi), Merriam’s (Urocitellus canus), Northern Idaho (Urocitellus brunneus), Idaho (Urocitellus endemicus), Piute (Urocitellus mollis) and Columbia Ground Squirrels (Urocitellus columbianus) are all close to Boise. And I saw the latter three on that trip. Beldings don’t emerge until May and I saw them in California in 2011. I don’t remember why we didn’t also look for Merriam’s as they would have been active. But I saw them with Matt when I returned in 2012. All the sites I visited were within a 2 hour drive of Boise. In July 2019 I was back on Boise for another two nights mammaling with Matt followed by a night in City of Rocks National Reserve.

Badger habitat, near the Snake River

Boise

Matt, and his wife Jennifer, live in Boise, a pleasant city with a definite Australian feel to it. They live just 15 minutes from Boise Airport, and introduced Eastern Fox Squirrels are very common in their suburb. Yellow-bellied Marmots were also common close to their house and we saw a couple in April 2010.

Eastern Fox Squirrel, Sciurus niger

A farm, five minutes walk from their place, were battling Northern Pocket Gophers in their veggie garden and they were happy for us to poke around some of the gopher holes. The best way to see a Gopher is to find a fresh mound, poke around with a stick until you find the tunnel, then excavate the hole so the end of the tunnel is exposed to the daylight.  The trick is to find a very fresh mound where the tunnel has not yet collapsed.

The light – or breeze- sensitive gopher should then emerge to fill in the hole. I set a live mole trap in one tunnel and returned a few hours later to find the hole I had dug had disappeared, as had the trap. I thought someone had moved it until I dug up the hole again to find my empty trap. The cunning gopher had avoided the trap – or gone straight through it – filled in the hole, and returned from whence it had come. We tried again in April 2010. Lots of fresh mounds again but still no gophers.

We caught several Western Deer Mice along the riverside trail near Matt’s place. Raccoons, Mink, Striped Skunks and Beavers are all common along the river here, though I didn’t go looking for them.

Bushy-tailed Woodrat, Neotoma cinerea

In July 2019 Matt caught me a Bushy-tailed Woodrat next to his woodshed and we found a Northern Pocket Gopher behind his house. More details are here.

Northern Pocket Gopher, Thomomys talpoides.

A big thank you to Matt and Jennifer for their hospitality, expertise and for teaching my kids how to toast marshmallows correctly.

In 2024 I visited Matt again and he showed my Townsend’s Pocket Gophers close to his place.

Townsend’s Pocket Gopher (Thomomys townsendii)

Craters of the Moon National Monument

Crater Chipmunk (Neotamias cratericus)

In 2024 I saw Crater Chipmunks here as well as Montane Voles and Pronghorn nearby.

Emmett

Idaho Ground Squirrel, Urocitellus endemicus

Idaho Ground Squirrels (Orocitellus endemicus), recently split from Northern Idaho Ground Squirrels (U. brunneus), are America’s rarest ground squirrel. But although they are scarce they are not hard to find in the right spot. Matt took me to one of the few known colonies, less than an hour from Boise, just outside the town of Emmett (off Van Dusen Road). The colony we saw is on private ranch lands so you have to stick to the road. If you continue on that road, there are some smaller colonies on public property in an area called Squaw Butte. We must have seen over a hundred animals in less than five minutes, but this is a large proportion of the total population.

Matt is happy to take others to see the animals. Contact him through his blog.

City of Rocks National Reserve

Great Basin Pocket Mouse, Perognathus mollipilosus

I spent an hour road cruising at night in 2019 but saw only a few Great Basin Pocket Mice crossing the road. I caught one in a trap just outside the reserve the next morning,

Indian Creek Recreation Area

The Indian Creek Recreation Area is 20 minutes from Boise airport, east along I84.  Take exit 71 which goes to a truck stop.  There’s a cattle grid just past the truck stop and turn immediately right after the grid. We set some traps and spent a couple of hours spotlighting here.

There were hundreds of Badger holes, though we couldn’t see a Badger.  But we did see, in September 2009, a Mountain Cottontail, Coyote, Black-tailed Jackrabbits and a couple of Kangaroo Rats (probably Ord’s).

Western Deer Mouse, Peromyscus sonoriensis

I had one animal among the 14 traps the next morning – a Deer Mouse. Probably just the common Western Deer Mouse, though its large ears had us thinking to begin with that perhaps it was a Canyon Deer Mouse. But its tail was too short.

Piute Ground Squirrel, Urocitellus mollis

In April 2010 Matt brought me back here to see Piute Ground Squirrels which are common from February through May. The Piutes were my 1000th mammal tick. Maybe not the Snow Leopard I had been hoping for to mark the occasion but I was not complaining.

Owhyhee Canyonlands

Sunset at Owhyhee Canyonlands

We spent a Saturday afternoon and evening in the Owyhee Canyonlands in September 2009. A beautiful area of sage brush and another good area for Badgers.  The mammals were quite hard to find, and even the Jackrabbits had disappeared.  A year ago it was apparently crawling with Blacktailed (lower down) and Whitetailed Jacrabbits in the higher elevations. Spotlighting eventually produced a couple of Whitetailed Jackrabbits (a lifer) but no Badgers. During the later afternoon we also saw a Pronghorn, a few Mule Deer, a Coyote, and what were probably Least Chipmunks. In the summer this area is excellent for ground squirrels but they were all in torpor by now it seemed (despite the temperature still being an unseasonably warm 30C).

In May 2012 I returned to a different part of the Owhyhee. Matt Miller took me to Wilson Creek, on Bureau of Land Management land about 25 miles from Nampa Idaho. The area is also known as the Hardtrigger Wild Horse Area and is accessed from Wilson Creek Road and a part of the 5 million acre southwestern corner of Idaho known as the Owyhees. A great spot.

As always Matt came up trumps and we spotted a couple of Merriam’s Ground Squirrels (Urocitellus canus). It wasn’t easy though. There was evidence – colonial burrows – of a decent population  but perhaps the strong breeze was keeping them underground that afternoon. We did see a few White-tailed Antelope Squirrels and – after half an hour of walking and driving – Matt spotted a lone Merriam’s Ground Squirrel poking out of its burrow. I couldn’t get a photo. Matt also advised that this species often retires for the night pretty early. There was a Black-tailed Jack Rabbit in the same area.

Silver Creek Preserve

Silver Creek Big Sky

In April 2010 Matt took me and my kids to stay a night at the Silver Creek Preserve which is run by The Nature Conservancy. Yet another beautiful spot, with a lovely little cabin, about 2 hours east of Boise on Highway 20, near the settlement of Picabo (pronounced peekaboo).

Columbia Ground Squirrels were common in the area, and there was an enormous amount of Montane Vole activity: their burrows and runs were everywhere, though I only saw one animal and could only trap Western Deer Mice.

Columbia Ground Squirrel, Urocitellus columbianus

We saw several Muskrats in the creek near the cabin, as well as some Mountain Cottontails, a Coyote and a few Mule Deer. Moose are often here though we couldn’t find any. The manger of the preserve also tried to find me a Bushy-tailed Wood Rat which are live in the farm buildings. But though 2010 was a great year for voles, it was a bad year for packrats and we didn’t find one. I did enjoy her stories of how the rats had stolen car keys from the house, and tomatoes from the garden, to decorate their nests.

Keep a look out for Marmots and Pikas in nearby Craters of the Moon National Monument.

Snake River Birds of Prey Conservation Area

The Snake River Birds of Prey Conservation Area is 40 minutes from Boise, along I84 west (take exit 44 to Kuna and follow Meridian Road heading south, then after 8 miles turn left onto Swan Falls Road to enter the reserve). This area has a huge number of Ground Squirrels and so supports one of the highest densities of American Badgers anywhere.

It took 6 hours of driving before I eventually found one at 9 p.m. just as I was leaving in September 2009. The area along the drive to Initial Point (8 miles after the Kuna visitor centre) is reputed to be one of the best places to look and this was where I found one, about 70 metres off the road. They have quite good eyeshine and are not particularly skittish.  But as I walked closer to try for a photo it disappeared down a hole.  But it was a lengthy and reasonably good sighting of an excellent animal.  Phew!

The only other mammal I saw there was a Cottontail.

Badger hole

Tamarack

Northern Idaho Ground Squirrel, Urocitellus brunneus

In mid July 2019 Matt Miller and I visited a well-studied colony of Northern Idaho Ground Squirrels near Tamarack, 2.5 hours from Boise. Although the adults were already aestivating, the the juveniles were stil active.

Northeast Idaho

In July 2015 I spent a weekend on a family camping trip near LoLo Hot Sprigs, in north-eastern Idaho. A lovely spot to camp and swim but I wasn’t really mammalwatching. I couldn’t help but notice a few Red-tailed Chipmunks running around the campsite (The Wilderness Gateway Camp, at milepost 122 along Hwy 12), along with Red Squirrels and Columbia Ground Squirrels.

I set 40 traps but caught only Western Deer Mice. The mammalian highlight was this Moose in a pond off the Clearwater River, three or four miles east of the campsite along Hwy 12.

Moose, Alces alces