<italic>Urocitellus canus</italic> (Rodentia: Sciuridae)

Urocitellus canus (Merriam, 1898) is a sciurid commonly called Merriam's ground squirrel. A nondescript, thin-tailed, unmarked ground squirrel, it is 1 of 12 species in the genus Urocitellus. It occurs in eastern Oregon and small parts of neighboring Idaho, Nevada, and California. It prefers grasslands and pastures with big sagebrush and western juniper. Although the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources places U. canus in their Least Concern (LC) category, this species is of conservation concern regionally because of its limited distribution.