Bangs's mountain squirrel (''Syntheosciurus brochus'') is a poorly known species of tree squirrel, that only lives in

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

and

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

. It can be found in mountain rain forests at an altitude between , and lives mainly in the tree tops, but sometimes on the

forest floor The forest floor, also called detritus or wikt:duff#Noun 2, duff, is the part of a forest ecosystem that mediates between the living, aboveground portion of the forest and the mineral soil, principally composed of dead and decaying plant matter ...

as well. One of its habitats is at the summit of the Poás Volcano in Costa Rica, in a Clusia forest that is almost inaccessible to humans.

Description

The squirrel's head and body measure , with a tail. It has an olive brown back and an orange-red belly. Because of the shape of its skull and teeth, the species has been separated from the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of typical tree squirrels, ''

Sciurus The genus ''Sciurus'' ( or ) contains most of the common, bushy-tailed squirrels in North America, Europe, Temperate zone, temperate Asia, Central America and South America. Species The number of species in the genus is subject to change. In 200 ...

'', into its own (monotypical) genus ''Syntheosciurus''.

Recent discovery

Until the 1980s, only four animals of this species were known. Since then, the species has been studied more in depth, especially by the zoologists N.M.Wells and J.Giacalone, who write that these mountain squirrels are sociable creatures. These squirrels live in pairs, together with their young, in a tree nest at a height of .

References

* * Ronald M. Nowak: ''Walker's Mammals of the World''. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999 * Robert K. Enders: ''Observations on Syntheosciurus: taxonomy and behavior''. Journal of Mammalogy 1980, Bd. 61, S. 725-727 * J. Giacalone, N.M. Wells, G. Willis: ''Observations on Syntheosciurus brochus (Sciuridae) in Volcán Poás National Park''. Journal of Mammalogy 1987, Bd. 68, S. 145-147 {{Taxonbar, from=Q1547417 Tree squirrels Rodents of Central America Taxa named by Outram Bangs