{"id":69102,"date":"2020-04-26T05:28:22","date_gmt":"2020-04-26T11:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=69102"},"modified":"2026-03-13T14:52:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T19:52:27","slug":"uinta-ground-squirrels-eating-earthworms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/04\/26\/uinta-ground-squirrels-eating-earthworms\/","title":{"rendered":"Uinta Ground Squirrels Eating Earthworms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uinta Ground Squirrels<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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\"Adult<\/a><\/div><\/div>
\"Earthworm<\/a><\/div><\/div>
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Two days ago I photographed something I had never seen or documented when I stopped to take photos of a Uinta Ground Squirrel and it started eating a big, fat, squirming earthworm.<\/p>\n

It had rained in the mountain canyon the day before and that was obvious by how muddy the road was. It was slick, slippery and even now the wheel wells of my Jeep are encased in a silty, reddish mud. The grasses, sagebrush and other plants next to the road were wet and drops of rainwater clung to them. When the sunlight hit the droplets just right they sparkled like diamonds.<\/p>\n

When I spotted a Uinta Ground Squirrel in good light on the west side of the road I carefully pulled over to the far side of the muddy road to photograph it. The ground squirrel looked in my direction then almost immediately grabbed an earthworm and tugged it straight out of the wet ground. It looked to be the biggest, fattest earthworm I’ve ever seen. I guess earthworms grow big in the mountain canyons.<\/p>\n

To start a slide show of the images click on the first photo on the gallery above.<\/p>\n

I took hundreds of photos of the adult Uinta Ground Squirrel eating the earthworm. The squirrel ignored me and devoured its breakfast.<\/p>\n

When the Uinta Ground Squirrel finished eating the earthworm it moved away from the shoulder of the road and out of my view. I was amazed by what I had seen and photographed.<\/p>\n

I turned my Jeep back on and started moving up the road again. When I spotted another ground squirrel I stopped to photograph it and when I saw it through my viewfinder I could see that it was just finishing up eating an earthworm too!<\/p>\n

The second worm-eating Uinta Ground Squirrel is seen in the last two images of the gallery above.<\/p>\n

I’ve photographed Uinta Ground Squirrels hundreds of times and I’d never seen them eating worms. I think the rain the day before caused the ground to be saturated just enough that it brought the earthworms close to the surface where they were easy pickings for the ground squirrels.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"UintaUinta Ground Squirrel showing its tongue – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/1000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
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After the second Uinta Ground Squirrel finished eating it stood up on its hind legs and called while I took photos of it. When I was at home reviewing the photos that I took this image reminded me of people that participate in food eating contests who open their mouths to show the judges that they have swallowed all their food.<\/p>\n

And I laughed. I felt this photo had to be the last one I shared of this series of the two worm-eating Uinta Ground Squirrels<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good. Stay safe.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Uinta Ground Squirrel photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two days ago I photographed something I had never seen or documented when I stopped to take photos of a Uinta Ground Squirrel and it started eating a big, fat earthworm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":171784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1731,1630,26,773],"tags":[9800,3940,9802,9799,5390,9794,9795,4286,4109,5943,1631,5071,9801,4069,7405,2213,5157,2759,3748,4501,165,3826,3827,7712,5185,9798,2619,2620,1824,5191,9796,9797],"class_list":["post-69102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summit-county-utah","category-uinta-ground-squirrel","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-break","tag-canyon","tag-chewing","tag-chowing-down","tag-devouring","tag-earthworm","tag-earthworms","tag-eating","tag-grasses","tag-ground","tag-ground-squirrel","tag-ground-squirrels","tag-meal","tag-mountains","tag-mouth","tag-mud","tag-muddy","tag-munching","tag-nibbling","tag-rain","tag-spring","tag-squirrel","tag-squirrels","tag-stuffing","tag-tongue","tag-tugging","tag-uinta-ground-squirrel-2","tag-urocitellus-armatus","tag-wet","tag-worm","tag-worms","tag-wrestling"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/uinta-ground-squirrel-earthworm-mia-mcpherson-5636.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-hYy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":72729,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/08\/16\/ta-ta-for-now-uinta-ground-squirrels\/","url_meta":{"origin":69102,"position":0},"title":"Ta-ta 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2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I was able to take a nice long series of baby Uinta Ground Squirrel photos high in the Wasatch Mountains.","rel":"","context":"In "Summit County"","block_context":{"text":"Summit County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/summit-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Two alert baby Uinta Ground Squirrels, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-mia-mcpherson-5803.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-mia-mcpherson-5803.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-mia-mcpherson-5803.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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