| Pine squirrels Temporal range: Middle Pleistocene - Recent | |
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| American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Sciuridae |
| Tribe: | Sciurini |
| Genus: | Tamiasciurus Trouessart, 1880 |
| Type species | |
| [Sciurus vulgaris] hudsonicus | |
| Species [1] | |
Pine squirrels are squirrels of the genus Tamiasciurus, in the Sciurini tribe, of the large family Sciuridae.
This genus includes three species: [2]
All three species are native to North America. Pine squirrels can be found in the northern and western United States, most of Canada, Alaska, and northwestern Mexico.
Pine squirrels, Tamiasciurus species, are small tree squirrels with bushy tails. Along with members of the genus Sciurus , they are members of the Sciurini tribe.
The name Tamiasciurus comes from Greek wiktionary:ταμίας tamías ‘steward, dispenser’ and wiktionary:σκίουρος skíouros 'squirrel'.
The American red squirrel should not be confused with the Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) — both are usually just referred to as the "red squirrel" in their home continents.
Pine squirrels rely on a variety of food sources including fungi, plants, arthropods and tree seed. [4]
Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-sized rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, and flying squirrels. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa, and were introduced by humans to Australia. The earliest known fossilized squirrels date from the Eocene epoch, and among other living rodent families, the squirrels are most closely related to the mountain beaver and to the dormice.
Sciurinae is a subfamily of squirrels, 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 the subfamily Sciurinae, but this has been strongly refuted by genetic studies.
The eastern gray squirrel, also known, particularly outside of North America, as simply the grey squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus. It is native to eastern North America, where it is the most prodigious and ecologically essential natural forest regenerator. Widely introduced to certain places around the world, the eastern gray squirrel in Europe, in particular, is regarded as an invasive species.
The western gray squirrel 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 Oregon gray squirrel, the Columbian gray squirrel and the banner-tail. There are three geographical subspecies: Sciurus griseus griseus ; S. g. nigripes ; and S. g. anthonyi.
The red squirrel or Eurasian red squirrel is a species of tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus common throughout Europe and Asia. The red squirrel is an arboreal, primarily herbivorous rodent.
The Douglas squirrel is a pine squirrel found in western North America, from the Pacific Northwest to central California, with an isolated subspecies in northern Baja California, Mexico. It is sometimes known as the chickaree or pine squirrel, although these names are also used for the American red squirrel. Variant spellings of the common name are Douglas' squirrel and Douglas's squirrel. The Native Americans of Kings River called it the "Pillillooeet", in imitation of its characteristic alarm call.
The American red squirrel is one of three species of tree squirrels currently classified in the genus Tamiasciurus, known as the pine squirrels. The American red squirrel is variously known as the pine squirrel or piney squirrel, North American red squirrel, chickaree, boomer, or simply red squirrel. The squirrel is a small, 200–250 g (7.1–8.8 oz), diurnal mammal that defends a year-round exclusive territory. It feeds primarily on the seeds of conifer cones, and is widely distributed across much of the United States and Canada wherever conifers are common, except in the southwestern United States, where it is replaced by the formerly conspecific southwestern red squirrel, and along the Pacific coast of the United States, where its cousin the Douglas squirrel is found instead.
The genus Sciurus contains most of the common, bushy-tailed squirrels in North America, Europe, temperate Asia, Central America and South America.
Abert's squirrel or the tassel-eared squirrel 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 found in Arizona, New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado. It is closely associated with, and largely confined to, mature ponderosa pine forests. It is named in honor of the American naturalist John James Abert; nine subspecies are recognised. It is recognizable by its tufted ears, gray color, pale underparts and rufous patch on the lower back. The squirrel feeds on the seeds and cones of the Mexican pinyon and the ponderosa pine when they are available, but will also take fungi, buds, bark, and carrion. Breeding normally occurs in summer, with a spherical nest being built high in the canopy.
Microsciurus or dwarf squirrels is a genus of squirrels from the tropical regions of Central and South America.
Sciurini is a tribe that includes about forty species of squirrels, mostly from the Americas. It includes five living genera—the American dwarf squirrels, Microsciurus; the Bornean Rheithrosciurus; the widespread American and Eurasian tree squirrels of the genus Sciurus, which includes some of the best known squirrel species; the Central American Syntheosciurus; and the American pine squirrels, Tamiasciurus. Like other arboreal squirrels, they are sometimes referred to as tree squirrels.
The western dwarf squirrel is a small tree squirrel in the genus Microsciurus and tribe Sciurini found in Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama.
The Caucasian squirrel or Persian squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus found in temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in south-western Asia.
The Arizona gray squirrel is a tree squirrel, in the genus Sciurus, endemic to the canyons and valleys surrounded by deciduous and mixed forests in eastern Arizona and northern Mexico.
The Mexican fox squirrel 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.
Mearns's squirrel is a subspecies of the Douglas squirrel endemic to Mexico. It is endangered and occurs in low densities, and is threatened by habitat loss. It is possibly also threatened by competition from the eastern gray squirrel, which was introduced to the range of Mearns's squirrel in 1946, but may not be present anymore. It is closely related to other subspecies of the Douglas squirrel, but far less is known about its behavior, which was first studied in detail in 2004. It is named for the 19th-century American naturalist Edgar Mearns.
Sciurus ingrami, usually called Ingram's squirrel in English, is a squirrel found in South America. It is known as serelepe in southeastern Brazil. It is found in the Atlantic Forest Biome of Brazil and Misiones Province, Argentina.
The Calabrian black squirrel is a species of tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus, endemic to the forests of the regions of Calabria and Basilicata, in the south of the Italian Peninsula.
The southwestern red squirrel or Fremont's squirrel is a species of tree squirrel endemic to high-altitude regions of the southwestern United States.
Media related to Tamiasciurus (pine squirrel) at Wikimedia Commons
Data related to Tamiasciurus at Wikispecies| Authority control databases: National |
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