Similar to the related prairie dog, it has a shorter face than the typical arboreal squirrels–due to its lifestyle of burrowing–as well as smaller ears, with a dark tail and white markings around the eyes.

[8] The Arctic ground squirrel can be found in parts of western Northern Canada, from the Arctic Circle to the Yukon, northern British Columbia and the Northwest Territories; west into Alaska, the Aleutian Islands archipelago, and across to the Russian Far East (Siberia), including the Kamchatka Peninsula.

[9] Arctic ground squirrels make shallow tunnels and burrows in locations where the permafrost will not prevent them from digging.

[11] Fossilised Arctic ground squirrel nests and caches have also been used for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction; Calamagrostis canadensis, Carex albonigra, and Koeleria sp.

are common in caches from Late Pleistocene Alaska, indicating the presence of an aerially extensive mammoth steppe ecosystem in the region at this time.

[13] In the summer, it forages for tundra plants, seeds, and fruit to increase body fat for its winter hibernation.

This process is being studied with the hope that mechanism present in arctic ground squirrels may provide a path for better preservation of human organs for transplant.

This squirrel feeds on grasses, sedges, mushrooms, bog rushes, bilberries, willows, roots, stalks, leaves, leaf buds, flowers, catkins, and seeds.

They will also eat insects and, occasionally, even supplement their diet with carrion (such as mice, snowshoe hares and caribou)[19] as well as juvenile Arctic ground squirrels.

Mating includes male-male competition for access to females, and litters are typically sired by multiple males.