[masraum]

Originally Posted by Sooner or later

We call our ground squirrels prairie dogs. We got a mess of them in and around a local park.

Had to check out wikipedia.

Ground squirrels are rodents of the squirrel family (Sciuridae) that generally live on the ground or in burrows, rather than in trees like the tree squirrels. The term is most often used for the medium-sized ground squirrels, as the larger ones are more commonly known as marmots (genus Marmota) or prairie dogs, while the smaller and less bushy-tailed ground squirrels tend to be known as chipmunks (genus Tamias).

I've seen chipmunks on vacation. That's as close as I'm aware of coming to any of the ground squirrel family. When we lived in Japan, we had moles in the area.