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The genus ''Sciurus'' contains most of the common, bushy-tailed
squirrel Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels. Squ ...
s in
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, Europe, temperate Asia, Central America and South America.


Species

The number of species in the genus is subject to change. In 2005, Thorington & Hoffman- whose taxonomic interpretation is followed by the IUCN website- accepted 28 species in the genus: Genus ''Sciurus'' *Subgenus ''Sciurus'' ** Allen's squirrel, ''Sciurus alleni'' ** Arizona gray squirrel, ''Sciurus arizonensis'' **
Mexican gray squirrel The Mexican gray squirrel (or red-bellied squirrel) (''Sciurus aureogaster'') is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' native to Guatemala and eastern and southern Mexico. It has been introduced to the Florida Keys. The alternate name should ...
, ''Sciurus aureogaster'' ** Eastern gray squirrel, ''Sciurus carolinensis'' **
Collie's squirrel Collie's squirrel (''Sciurus colliaei'') is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined ...
, ''Sciurus colliaei'' ** Deppe's squirrel, ''Sciurus deppei'' **
Japanese squirrel The Japanese squirrel (''Sciurus lis'') is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' endemic to Japan. It was described by Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1844. The Japanese squirrel's range includes the islands of Honshū, Shikoku, and ...
, ''Sciurus lis'' ** Calabrian black squirrel, ''Sciurus meridionalis'' **
Mexican fox squirrel The Mexican fox squirrel (''Sciurus nayaritensis'') is a species of tree squirrel found throughout the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico as far south as Jalisco — and northward into the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona, U.S.Best, T ...
, ''Sciurus nayaritensis'' ** Fox squirrel, ''Sciurus niger'' **
Peters's squirrel Peters's squirrel (''Sciurus oculatus'') is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' endemic to Mexico. It was first described by the German naturalist and explorer Wilhelm Peters in 1863. Three subspecies are recognised. It is a common species, ...
, ''Sciurus oculatus'' **
Variegated squirrel The variegated squirrel (''Sciurus variegatoides'') is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' found in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, southern Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama. Fifteen subspecies are recognised. It is a common s ...
, ''Sciurus variegatoides'' **
Eurasian red squirrel The red squirrel (''Sciurus vulgaris'') is a species of tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' common throughout Europe and Asia. The red squirrel is an arboreal, primarily herbivorous rodent. In Great Britain, Ireland, and in Italy numbers ...
, ''Sciurus vulgaris'' **
Yucatan squirrel The Yucatan squirrel (, ''Sciurus yucatanensis''), originally named the Yucatan gray squirrel, also once named the Campeche squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' found in the Yucatán Peninsula and adjacent areas. It is native to ...
, ''Sciurus yucatanensis'' *Subgenus ''Otosciurus'' **
Abert's squirrel Abert's squirrel or the tassel-eared squirrel (''Sciurus aberti'') is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' native to the southern Rocky Mountains from the United States to the northern Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico, with concentrations fo ...
, ''Sciurus aberti'' *Subgenus ''Guerlinguetus'' ** Brazilian squirrel (Guianan squirrel), ''Sciurus aestuans'' **
Yellow-throated squirrel The yellow-throated squirrel (''Sciurus gilvigularis'') is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' endemic to South America. It is found in Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( e ...
, ''Sciurus gilvigularis'' **
Red-tailed squirrel The red-tailed squirrel (''Sciurus granatensis'') is a species of tree squirrel distributed from southern Central America to northern South America. Distribution It is found in Central and South America ( Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, ...
, ''Sciurus granatensis'' **
Bolivian squirrel The Bolivian squirrel (''Sciurus ignitus'') is a tree squirrel that is endemic to South America. Little is known of the species, which may represent a species complex. Description Bolivian squirrels are moderately sized tree squirrels, with a he ...
, ''Sciurus ignitus'' **
Andean squirrel The Andean squirrel (''Sciurus pucheranii'') is a tree squirrel endemic to Colombia where it inhabits montane rain forest and cloud forests of the Cordillera Occidental and Cordillera Central ranges of the Colombian Andes, at elevations betwe ...
, ''Sciurus pucheranii'' **
Richmond's squirrel Richmond's squirrel (''Sciurus richmondi'') is a poorly known tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' endemic to Nicaragua, which is likely a synonym of the red-tailed squirrel (''Sciurus granatensis''). It is locally known as the ardilla del rama ...
, ''Sciurus richmondi'' **
Sanborn's squirrel Sanborn's squirrel (''Sciurus sanborni'') is or was a little known tree squirrel described in 1944 from the skin and skeleton of a single female specimen collected in Peru in 1941. Subsequently, over the proceeding years only a handful of either s ...
, ''Sciurus sanborni'' **
Guayaquil squirrel The Guayaquil squirrel (''Sciurus stramineus'') is a tree squirrel endemic to Ecuador and Peru. It is a robust squirrel with a head-and-body length of and a similar length tail. The colour is variable; in Peru, a pale morph is more common, while ...
, ''Sciurus stramineus'' *Subgenus ''Tenes'' **
Persian squirrel The Caucasian squirrel (''Sciurus anomalus'') or Persian squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' found in temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in south-western Asia. The species is usually said to have first been described in 1778 ...
, ''Sciurus anomalus'' *Subgenus ''Hadrosciurus'' **
Fiery squirrel The fiery squirrel (''Sciurus flammifer'') is a rodent in the family Sciuridae. The taxon is endemic to the area south of the Orinoco River in the state of Bolívar, Venezuela. Taxonomy In 2015 de Vivo & Carmignotto reduced this taxon to a subs ...
, ''Sciurus flammifer'' **
Junín red squirrel The Junín red squirrel (''Sciurus pyrrhinus'') is a species of squirrel from Peru and Ecuador. Description The Junín red squirrel is a relatively large tree squirrel, having a head-body length of about . The majority of the body is covered in ...
, ''Sciurus pyrrhinus'' *Subgenus ''Hesperosciurus'' **
Western gray squirrel The western gray squirrel (''Sciurus griseus'') is a tree squirrel found along the western coast of the United States and Mexico. In some places, this species has also been known as the silver-gray squirrel, the California gray squirrel, the Or ...
, ''Sciurus griseus'' *Subgenus ''Urosciurus'' **
Northern Amazon red squirrel The northern Amazon red squirrel (''Sciurus igniventris'') is a squirrel species from South America. It occurs in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, ...
, ''Sciurus igniventris'' ** Southern Amazon red squirrel, ''Sciurus spadiceus'' In 2015, 15–17 species were left in the genus ''Sciurus'' after de Vivo & Carmignotto comprehensively reviewed South American Sciuridae for the first time in many decades and proposed numerous changes; synonymising some species and many subspecies, splitting another species, and naming new species. They followed Joel Asaph Allen's unsatisfying 1914 attempt in splitting the genus ''Sciurus'' by raising the South American subgenera to the rank of genus, adding ''Urosciurus'' to ''Hadrosciurus'', and splitting the genus ''Guerlinguetus'' in three. Their taxonomic treatment might also require ''Sciurus deppei'' to be moved to ''Notosciurus''. A 2020 paper published on the taxonomy of
Sciurinae Sciurinae is a subfamily of squirrels (in the family Sciuridae), uniting the flying squirrels with certain related tree squirrels. Older sources place the flying squirrels in a separate subfamily (Pteromyinae) and unite all remaining sciurids into ...
split ''Sciurus'' into multiple new genera and elevated several subgenera. The paper included genetic sampling from almost all recognized species and recommends the following species assignments: *''Sciurus'' **
Persian squirrel The Caucasian squirrel (''Sciurus anomalus'') or Persian squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' found in temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in south-western Asia. The species is usually said to have first been described in 1778 ...
, ''S. anomalus'' **
Eurasian red squirrel The red squirrel (''Sciurus vulgaris'') is a species of tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' common throughout Europe and Asia. The red squirrel is an arboreal, primarily herbivorous rodent. In Great Britain, Ireland, and in Italy numbers ...
, ''S. vulgaris'' **
Japanese squirrel The Japanese squirrel (''Sciurus lis'') is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' endemic to Japan. It was described by Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1844. The Japanese squirrel's range includes the islands of Honshū, Shikoku, and ...
, ''S. lis'' *''Hesperosciurus'' **
Abert's squirrel Abert's squirrel or the tassel-eared squirrel (''Sciurus aberti'') is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' native to the southern Rocky Mountains from the United States to the northern Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico, with concentrations fo ...
, ''H. aberti'' **
Western gray squirrel The western gray squirrel (''Sciurus griseus'') is a tree squirrel found along the western coast of the United States and Mexico. In some places, this species has also been known as the silver-gray squirrel, the California gray squirrel, the Or ...
, ''H. griseus'' *''Parasciurus'' ** Allen's squirrel, ''P. alleni'' ** Arizona gray squirrel, ''P. arizonensis'' **
Mexican fox squirrel The Mexican fox squirrel (''Sciurus nayaritensis'') is a species of tree squirrel found throughout the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico as far south as Jalisco — and northward into the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona, U.S.Best, T ...
, ''P. nayaritensis'' ** Fox squirrel, ''P. niger'' **
Peters's squirrel Peters's squirrel (''Sciurus oculatus'') is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' endemic to Mexico. It was first described by the German naturalist and explorer Wilhelm Peters in 1863. Three subspecies are recognised. It is a common species, ...
, ''P. oculatus'' *''Neosciurus'' ** Eastern gray squirrel, ''N. carolinensis'' *''Echinosciurus'' **
Mexican gray squirrel The Mexican gray squirrel (or red-bellied squirrel) (''Sciurus aureogaster'') is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' native to Guatemala and eastern and southern Mexico. It has been introduced to the Florida Keys. The alternate name should ...
, ''E. aureogaster'' **
Collie's squirrel Collie's squirrel (''Sciurus colliaei'') is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined ...
, ''E. colliaei'' ** Deppe's squirrel, ''E. deppei'' **
Variegated squirrel The variegated squirrel (''Sciurus variegatoides'') is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' found in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, southern Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama. Fifteen subspecies are recognised. It is a common s ...
, ''E. variegatoides'' **
Yucatan squirrel The Yucatan squirrel (, ''Sciurus yucatanensis''), originally named the Yucatan gray squirrel, also once named the Campeche squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' found in the Yucatán Peninsula and adjacent areas. It is native to ...
, ''E. yucatanensis'' *''Simosciurus'' **''
S. nebouxii S is the nineteenth letter of the English alphabet. S may also refer to: History * an Anglo-Saxon charter's number in Peter Sawyer (historian), Peter Sawyer's, catalogue Language and linguistics * Long s (ſ), a form of the lower-case letter s ...
'' **
Guayaquil squirrel The Guayaquil squirrel (''Sciurus stramineus'') is a tree squirrel endemic to Ecuador and Peru. It is a robust squirrel with a head-and-body length of and a similar length tail. The colour is variable; in Peru, a pale morph is more common, while ...
, ''S. stramineus'' *''Guerlinguetus'' **
Brazilian squirrel The Brazilian squirrel (or Guianan squirrel) (''Sciurus aestuans'') is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' endemic to South America. It is found in South-eastern Colombia, Brazil, Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname and Venezuela Vene ...
, ''G. aestuans'' **'' G. brasiliensis'' *''Hadrosciurus'' **
Bolivian squirrel The Bolivian squirrel (''Sciurus ignitus'') is a tree squirrel that is endemic to South America. Little is known of the species, which may represent a species complex. Description Bolivian squirrels are moderately sized tree squirrels, with a he ...
, ''H. ignitus'' **
Northern Amazon red squirrel The northern Amazon red squirrel (''Sciurus igniventris'') is a squirrel species from South America. It occurs in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, ...
, ''H. igniventris'' **
Junín red squirrel The Junín red squirrel (''Sciurus pyrrhinus'') is a species of squirrel from Peru and Ecuador. Description The Junín red squirrel is a relatively large tree squirrel, having a head-body length of about . The majority of the body is covered in ...
, ''H. pyrrhinus'' ** Southern Amazon red squirrel, ''H. spadiceus'' Additionally, the paper suggests moving
Andean squirrel The Andean squirrel (''Sciurus pucheranii'') is a tree squirrel endemic to Colombia where it inhabits montane rain forest and cloud forests of the Cordillera Occidental and Cordillera Central ranges of the Colombian Andes, at elevations betwe ...
back to subtribe Microsciurina, the dwarf squirrels, and assigns it to the newly described genus ''Leptosciurus''. The paper's findings agree with prior assessments to synonymize
Richmond's squirrel Richmond's squirrel (''Sciurus richmondi'') is a poorly known tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' endemic to Nicaragua, which is likely a synonym of the red-tailed squirrel (''Sciurus granatensis''). It is locally known as the ardilla del rama ...
into
Red-tailed squirrel The red-tailed squirrel (''Sciurus granatensis'') is a species of tree squirrel distributed from southern Central America to northern South America. Distribution It is found in Central and South America ( Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, ...
and reassigns the Red-tailed squirrel into the previously monotypic Asian genus ''
Syntheosciurus Bangs's mountain squirrel (''Syntheosciurus brochus'') is a poorly known species of tree squirrel, that only lives in Costa Rica and Panama. It can be found in mountain rain forests at an altitude between , and lives mainly in the tree tops, but ...
'', also in Microsciurina. The paper did not include genetic sampling or taxonomic suggestions for ''gilvigularis'', ''meridionalis'', ''sanborni'', or ''flammifer''.


References

* *Nowak, Ronald M. 1999. ''Walker's Mammals of the World'', 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1936 pp.  *Eisenberg, J.F. 1989.
Mammals of the Neotropics, Volume 1: The Northern Neotropics: Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana
. University of Chicago Press. *Redford, K.H. and Eisenberg, J.F. 1992.
Mammals of the Neotropics, Volume 2: The Southern Cone: Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay
. University of Chicago Press. *Eisenberg, J.F. and Redford, K.H. 1999.
Mammals of the Neotropics, Volume 3: The Central Neotropics: Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil
. University of Chicago Press.


Footnotes

Rodent genera Extant Miocene first appearances Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Squirrel-stub