Red-bellied Squirrel
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The red-bellied squirrel or Sulawesi giant squirrel (''Rubrisciurus rubriventer'') is a species of
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 ...
. Until recently, it was described as a species in the genus ''
Callosciurus ''Callosciurus'' is a genus of squirrels collectively referred to as the "''beautiful squirrels''". They are found mainly in Southeast Asia, though a few species also occur in Nepal, northeastern India, Bangladesh and southern China. Several of t ...
'', but since the 1990s it is generally placed in its own genus ''Rubrisciurus''. It is
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 zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
on the Indonesian island of
Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...
, where it is widespread. It has also been found on
Sangir Island Sangir Besar, commonly called Sangir Island (with the spelling variants "Sangihe", "Sanghir" or "Sangi"), is an island in the Sangir Islands group. Its Indonesian name literally means "Great Sangir", in reference to the fact that it is the archip ...
to the north of Sulawesi. With a length of 25 cm (head and body), it is rather large for a squirrel. It lives in the tree tops of the rainforests of the island.


References

*Thorington, R. W. Jr. and R. S. Hoffman. 2005. Family Sciuridae. pp. 754–818 ''in'' Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. Mammals described in 1844 Rodents of Sulawesi Callosciurinae {{Squirrel-stub