The pallid ground squirrel (''Spermophilus pallidicauda'') is a species of

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

in the family

Sciuridae 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 ...

. It is found in

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

and the adjacent

Nei Mongol Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

autonomous region. A generic revision of the genus was undertaken in 2007 which helped resolve the uncertainty as to whether this species should be considered a subspecies of '' Spermophilus erythrogenys''. A phylogeny based on molecular sequence data determined that ''S. pallidicauda'' was indeed a separate species from ''S. erythrogenys'', and from the other similar species in the genus, ''S. brevicauda'' and ''S. alashanicus''.

Distribution

The pallid ground squirrel is found in

near Lake Khulu-Nur and the Baidarak River and in Ullyn Bulyk, the Mongolian and the

Gobi The Gobi Desert ( Chinese: 戈壁 (沙漠), Mongolian: Говь (ᠭᠣᠪᠢ)) () is a large desert or brushland region in East Asia, and is the sixth largest desert in the world. Geography The Gobi measures from southwest to northeast ...

Altai Mountains. The closely related species, '' Spermophilus alashanicus'' from the Alashan Desert and '' Spermophilus brevicauda'', found in eastern Kazakhstan and in

Tian Shan The Tian Shan,, , otk, 𐰴𐰣 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, , tr, Tanrı Dağı, mn, Тэнгэр уул, , ug, تەڭرىتاغ, , , kk, Тәңіртауы / Алатау, , , ky, Теңир-Тоо / Ала-Тоо, , , uz, Tyan-Shan / Tangritog‘ ...

mountain range, are allopatric in distribution as they are largely separated by geographic boundaries.A Guide to the Mammals of China
/ref> It has been found to hybridise with ''P. alashanicus'' where their ranges do overlap.Genetic evidence of hybridization between paletailed Spermophilus pallidicauda
/ref>

Description

This ground squirrel has a strawy-brown colour which takes on a more sandy hue in summer but is still paler than other similar species. The short tail is a whitish-yellow colour with a rust coloured stripe most of the way along the upper side. There is a white streak across the side of the face, white eyelids and a rusty coloured spot under each eye. The underside is generally paler and the length is about twenty centimetres.

Biology

This species is quite common in the grasslands of the Gobi and nearby areas. It is a colonial species and active during the day.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1761465 Spermophilus Mammals described in 1903 Taxa named by Konstantin Satunin