Being native to the northwestern United States, the Belding's ground squirrel ranges covers northeastern Oregon and part of Washington, north California, southwestern Idaho, north and central Nevada and northwestern Utah.

[4] The ground squirrel prefers to live at higher altitudes, occurring in alpine and subalpine meadows.

[4] The grounds squirrels are largely restricted to open areas with enough fresh vegetation and water.

They do not live in dense forests, tall grasses, rocky slopes or thick shrubbery as they cannot watch for predators.

[4][7] As such, the ground squirrels eat large quantities of food before hibernation, doubling their body weight.

[7] Belding's ground squirrels hibernate at different times, depending on the sex and age of the individual and the altitude of their environment.

[6] The demography of a free-living population at Tioga Pass was studied using mark-recapture techniques over 11 consecutive field seasons.

[9] Belding's ground squirrels live in a nepotistic society where most interactions occur between females, their offspring, and collateral kin.

[11][12] Females cooperate to defend territories, protect pups from infanticide, share feeding areas, and give alarm calls when predators approach.

[15] These phenotypes come in the form of scent from dorsal and anal glands that leave a "pungent" odor in the dust bathing areas.

Laboratory tests[15] indicate that females can discriminate between kin and nonkin, and close and distant relatives.

[15] Belding's ground squirrels are preyed on by various mammals (e.g., coyotes, badgers, and weasels) and birds (e.g., red-tailed and rough-legged hawks).

[17] Belding's ground squirrels respond to predators by giving two distinct types of alarm calls.

[20] Individuals that are close to the alarm caller will respond by standing on their back legs (posting), running on a rock to get a better view of the predator or by returning to their core area.

[20] All individuals in hearing range will exhibit evasive behavior such as crouching[20] or fleeing into the nearest shelter.

By contrast, when running from terrestrial predators, escaping squirrels do not call until they make it to safety.

[4] The gestation period of the ground squirrel lasts 23–31 days and young are born late June to early July in higher elevation regions, while in lower areas such as Central Oregon young are born in March and emerge from their dens en masse about mid-April when the first warm days of spring begin.

Pups first emerge from their natal burrows at weaning, when they are about 27 days old (at Tioga Pass, in July and early August).

An intruding squirrel will drag a squealing, squirming juvenile out of the nest burrow, and promptly kill it by biting its head.