Baby Squirrel Small Rodent With a Fluffy Tail

Family of rodents

This article is about the squirrel family (Sciuridae) as a whole. For other uses, meet Squirrel (disambiguation).

Squirrels Temporal range: Late Eocene – Contempo PreꞒ Ꞓ O Due south D C P T J G Pg N
Various members of the family Sciuridae Callosciurus prevostii Eutamias sibiricus Tamiasciurus hudsonicus Sciurus niger Urocitellus columbianus Paraxerus cepapi Geosciurus inauris Marmota sp. Cynomys ludovicianus
Scientific nomenclature
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Guild:	Rodentia
Suborder:	Sciuromorpha
Family:	Sciuridae Fischer de Waldheim, 1817
Type genus
Sciurus Linnaeus, 1758
Subfamilies and tribes
Subfamily Ratufinae Subfamily Sciurillinae Subfamily Sciurinae Tribe Sciurini Tribe Pteromyini Subfamily Callosciurinae Tribe Callosciurini Tribe Funambulini Subfamily Xerinae Tribe Xerini Tribe Protoxerini Tribe Marmotini

Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family unit that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family unit includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa, and were introduced by humans to Commonwealth of australia.^[1] The earliest known fossilized squirrels date from the Eocene epoch, and among other living rodent families, the squirrels are nearly closely related to the mount beaver and to the dormice.^{[ citation needed ]}

Etymology

The give-and-take "squirrel", first attested in 1327, comes from the Anglo-Norman esquirel which is from the Onetime French escurel, the reflex of a Latin word sciurus, which was taken from the Ancient Greek word σκίουρος (from σκία-ουρος), skiouros, "shadow-tailed", referring to the long bushy tail which many of its members have.^{[2] [three]}

The native Old English word for the squirrel, ācweorna, survived only into Eye English (as aquerne) earlier beingness replaced.^[4] The Old English language discussion is of Common Germanic origin, cognates of which are nevertheless used in other Germanic languages, including the German Eichhörnchen (atomic of Eichhorn, which is not as often used), the Norwegian ikorn/ekorn, the Dutch eekhoorn, the Swedish ekorre and the Danish egern.

A group of squirrels is called a "dray"^[5] or a "scurry".^[6]

Characteristics

Reaching out for food on a garden bird feeder, this squirrel can rotate its hind feet, allowing it to descend a tree head-outset.

Squirrels are generally small-scale animals, ranging in size from the African pygmy squirrel and to the lowest degree pygmy squirrel at ten–14 cm (3.nine–v.five in) in total length and just 12–26 g (0.42–0.92 oz) in weight,^{[vii] [8]} to the Kingdom of bhutan giant flying squirrel at up to 1.27 m (4 ft 2 in) in total length,^[9] and several marmot species, which tin weigh 8 kg (18 lb) or more.^{[ten] [eleven]} Squirrels typically accept slender bodies with very long very bushy tails and large eyes. In general, their fur is soft and silky, though much thicker in some species than others. The coat color of squirrels is highly variable between—and often even inside—species.^[12]

In most squirrel species, the hind limbs are longer than the fore limbs, while all species accept either four or v toes on each foot. The feet, which include an frequently poorly developed thumb, accept soft pads on the undersides^[xiii] and versatile, sturdy claws for grasping and climbing.^[14] Tree squirrels, unlike nearly mammals, can descend a tree head-outset. They do so past rotating their ankles 180 degrees, enabling the hind feet to betoken backward and thus grip the tree bark from the contrary direction.^[15]

Squirrels live in almost every habitat, from tropical rainforest to semiarid desert, avoiding only the loftier polar regions and the driest of deserts. They are predominantly herbivorous, subsisting on seeds and nuts, but many will eat insects and even small vertebrates.^[16]

Every bit their large optics signal, squirrels have an excellent sense of vision, which is especially important for the tree-dwelling species. Many also take a good sense of impact, with vibrissae on their limbs as well every bit their heads.^[13]

The teeth of sciurids follow the typical rodent pattern, with large incisors (for gnawing) that grow throughout life, and cheek teeth (for grinding) that are set back behind a wide gap, or diastema. The typical dental formula for sciurids is i.0.i.three 1.0.i.iii .^[17]

Many juvenile squirrels die in the first twelvemonth of life. Developed squirrels tin can have a lifespan of 5 to ten years in the wild. Some can survive ten to 20 years in captivity.^[18] Premature death may be caused when a nest falls from the tree, in which case the mother may abandon her immature if their torso temperature is not correct. Many such baby squirrels accept been rescued and fostered by a professional wild animals rehabilitator until they could exist safely returned to the wild,^[19] although the density of squirrel populations in many places and the constant care required by premature squirrels means that few rehabilitators are willing to spend their fourth dimension doing this and such animals are routinely euthanized instead.

Stated purposes of squirrels' tails, to do good the squirrel, include:^[xx]

• To go along rain, air current, or cold off itself.
• To cool off when hot, past pumping more blood through its tail.
• As a weigh when jumping about in trees.
• As a parachute when jumping.
• To signal with.

The hairs from squirrel tails are prized in fly fishing when tying line-fishing flies. A special quality of squirrel tail hair is that it is all guard hairs, non undercoat.

When the squirrel is sitting upright, its tail folded up its dorsum may stop predators looking from behind from seeing the characteristic shape of a small mammal.

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  Squirrel enjoying in the lord's day.

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  Squirrel in Chandigarh.

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  Squirrel near Chandigarh.

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  Squirrel on mango tree.

Behavior

Squirrels mate either once or twice a year and, following a gestation period of three to six weeks, give birth to a number of offspring that varies by species. The young are altricial, being born naked, toothless, and blind. In virtually species of squirrel, the female lonely looks after the immature, which are weaned at six to x weeks and become sexually mature by the stop of their get-go year. In general, the ground-dwelling squirrel species are social, oft living in well-developed colonies, while the tree-dwelling species are more solitary.^[13]

Ground squirrels and tree squirrels are usually either diurnal or crepuscular,^[21] while the flying squirrels tend to be nocturnal—except for lactating flying squirrels and their young, which accept a period of diurnality during the summer.^[22]

Feeding

Because squirrels cannot digest cellulose, they must rely on foods rich in poly peptide, carbohydrates, and fats. In temperate regions, early on spring is the hardest time of year for squirrels because the basics they buried are beginning to sprout (and thus are no longer bachelor to eat), while many of the usual food sources take not even so get available. During these times, squirrels rely heavily on the buds of copse. Squirrels, being primarily herbivores, eat a wide diversity of plants, as well as nuts, seeds, conifer cones, fruits, fungi, and green vegetation. Some squirrels, nonetheless, as well swallow meat, particularly when faced with hunger.^{[16] [24]} Squirrels have been known to consume small birds, immature snakes, and smaller rodents, as well equally bird eggs and insects. Some tropical squirrel species take shifted well-nigh entirely to a diet of insects.^[25]

Squirrels, like pigeons and other beast, are synanthropes, in that they do good and thrive from their interaction in human environments. This gradual process of successful interaction is called synurbanization, wherein squirrels lose their inherent fearfulness of humans in an urban environment.^[26] When squirrels were most completely eradicated during the Industrial Revolution in New York, they were afterwards re-introduced to "entertain and remind" humans of nature. The squirrel composite into the urban surroundings then efficiently that when synanthropic behavior stops (i.e. people do non leave trash outside during particularly cold winters), they can become aggressive in their search for food.

Aggression and predatory behavior has been observed in diverse species of basis squirrels, in particular the thirteen-lined ground squirrel.^[27] For example, Bernard Bailey, a scientist in the 1920s, observed a thirteen-lined basis squirrel preying upon a immature chicken.^[28] Wistrand reported seeing this same species eating a freshly killed ophidian.^[29] There has also been at least one study of squirrels preying on atypical animals, such as an incident in 2005 where a pack of black squirrels killed and ate a large stray domestic dog in Lazo, Russia.^[thirty] As well, squirrel attacks on humans are exceedingly rare, but do occur.^{[31] [32]}

Whitaker examined the stomachs of 139 thirteen-lined ground squirrels and constitute bird flesh in four of the specimens and the remains of a short-tailed shrew in i;^[33] Bradley, examining the stomachs of white-tailed antelope squirrels, establish at least x% of his 609 specimens' stomachs contained some type of vertebrate, mostly lizards and rodents.^[34] Morgart observed a white-tailed antelope squirrel capturing and eating a silky pocket mouse.^[35]

Taxonomy

Squirrel outside the Cleveland Museum of Art

A squirrel (Callosciurus erythraeus thaiwanensis) in Japan

The living squirrels are divided into five subfamilies, with about 58 genera and some 285 species.^[36] The oldest squirrel fossil, Hesperopetes, dates back to the Chadronian (belatedly Eocene, near twoscore–35 million years agone) and is similar to modern flying squirrels.^[37]

A variety of fossil squirrels, from the latest Eocene to the Miocene, have not been assigned with certainty to any living lineage. At to the lowest degree some of these probably were variants of the oldest basal "protosquirrels" (in the sense that they lacked the full range of living squirrels' autapomorphies). The distribution and diversity of such aboriginal and ancestral forms suggest the squirrels as a group may have originated in Northward America.^[38]

Apart from these sometimes footling-known fossil forms, the phylogeny of the living squirrels is fairly straightforward. The three main lineages are the Ratufinae (Oriental giant squirrels), Sciurillinae and all other subfamilies. The Ratufinae incorporate a mere scattering of living species in tropical Asia. The neotropical pygmy squirrel of tropical South America is the sole living member of the Sciurillinae. The third lineage, by far the largest, has a near-cosmopolitan distribution. This further supports the hypothesis that the common antecedent of all squirrels, living and fossil, lived in North America, as these 3 most ancient lineages seem to take radiated from there; if squirrels had originated in Eurasia, for example, 1 would expect quite aboriginal lineages in Africa, but African squirrels seem to exist of more recent origin.^[38]

The main group of squirrels besides can be split into three subgroups, which yield the remaining subfamilies. The Sciurinae contains the flying squirrels (Pteromyini) and the Sciurini, which amid others contains the American tree squirrels; the former have often been considered a divide subfamily, merely are now seen equally a tribe of the Sciurinae. The pino squirrels (Tamiasciurus), on the other mitt, are usually included with the main tree squirrel lineage, simply appear to be about equally singled-out every bit the flying squirrels; hence, they are sometimes considered a singled-out tribe, Tamiasciurini.^[39]

Two of the three subfamilies are of about equal size, containing between nearly 70 and 80 species each; the third is about twice as large. The Sciurinae contains arboreal (tree-living) squirrels, mainly of the Americas and to a lesser extent Eurasia. The Callosciurinae is most diverse in tropical Asia and contains squirrels that are likewise arboreal, but have a markedly different habitus and announced more "elegant", an outcome enhanced past their often very colorful fur. The Xerinae—the largest subfamily—are made upwards from the mainly terrestrial (ground-living) forms and include the big marmots and the popular prairie dogs, amid others, equally well as the tree squirrels of Africa; they tend to be more gregarious than other squirrels, which do not usually live together in shut-knit groups.^[38]

• Basal and incertae sedis Sciuridae (all fossil)
  • Hesperopetes
  • Kherem
  • Lagrivea
  • Oligosciurus
  • Plesiosciurus
  • Prospermophilus
  • Sciurion
  • Similisciurus
  • Sinotamias
  • Vulcanisciurus
• Subfamily Cedromurinae (fossil)
• Subfamily Ratufinae – Oriental giant squirrels (1 genus, four species)
• Subfamily Sciurillinae – neotropical pygmy squirrel (monotypic)
• Subfamily Sciurinae
  • Tribe Sciurini – tree squirrels (5 genera, well-nigh 38 species)
  • Tribe Pteromyini – true flying squirrels (15 genera, virtually 45 species)
• Subfamily Callosciurinae – Asian ornate squirrels
  • Tribe Callosciurini (13 genera, nearly 60 species)
  • Tribe Funambulini palm squirrels (ane genus, 5 species)
• Subfamily Xerinae – terrestrial squirrels
  • Tribe Xerini – spiny squirrels (3 genera, half-dozen species)
  • Tribe Protoxerini (6 genera, about 50 species)
  • Tribe Marmotini – ground squirrels, marmots, chipmunks, prairie dogs, etc. (6 genera, about ninety species)

Society

This department needs expansion. You can assist by adding to it. (Feb 2021)

Squirrels are a cause for business considering they often cause electric disruptions. It has been hypothesized that the threat to the internet, infrastructure and services posed by squirrels may exceed that posed by cyber-attacks.^[40]

See also

• American cherry-red squirrel
• Animal track
• Black squirrel
• Eastern gray squirrel
• Fox squirrel
• List of animal names#squirrel
• Cerise squirrel
• Squirrel relationship with humans
• Western gray squirrel

References

1. ^ Seebeck, J. H. "Sciuridae" (PDF). Fauna of Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 January 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
2. ^ "squirrel, n.". The Oxford English Dictionary (2d. ed.). Oxford University Press. 1989. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
3. ^ Whitaker & Elman (1980): 370
4. ^ "Squirrel". Online Etymology Dictionary . Retrieved 7 February 2008.
5. ^ Lipton, James (1991). An Exaltation of Larks. Viking. ISBN978-0-670-30044-0.
6. ^ Universe in Your Pocket by Joel Levy, published by Barnes & Noble, Inc.
7. ^ Kingdon, J. (1997). The Kingdon Guide to African Mammals . Bookish Printing Limited, London. ISBN0-12-408355-2.
8. ^ Payne, J.; C.F. Francis (1998). A Field Guide to the Mammals of Borneo (3 ed.). The Sabah Order. p. 243. ISBN967-99947-1-6.
9. ^ Choudhury, A. (2002). "Petaurista nobilis singhei: First record in India and a note on its taxonomy". The Journal of the Mumbai Natural History Guild. 99 (1): 30–34.
10. ^ Kryštufek, B.; B. Vohralík (2013). "Taxonomic revision of the Palaearctic rodents (Rodentia). Part 2. Sciuridae: Urocitellus, Marmota and Sciurotamias". Lynx, N. S. (Praha). 44: 27–138.
11. ^ Armitage, K.B.; Blumstein, D.T. (2002). "Body-mass diversity in marmots. Holarctic marmots every bit a factor of biodiversity". In Grand.B. Armitage; V.Yu. Rumiantsev (eds.). Holarctic Marmots every bit a Factor of Biodiversity. ABF Publishing House. pp. 22–32.
12. ^ Tree Squirrels, Wildlife Online, 23 November 2010.
13. ^ ^{a b c} Milton (1984)
14. ^ "Rodents". How Stuff Works. 22 April 2008. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
15. ^ Thorington, Richard W.; Koprowski, John Fifty.; Steele, Michael A.; Whatton, James F. (2012). Squirrels of the Globe. Johns Hopkins Academy Press. p. viii. ISBN978-1421404691.
16. ^ ^{a b} Squirrel Place Archived 27 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine. squirrels.org. Retrieved xiv December 2010.
17. ^ The Beginning of the Historic period of Mammals Kenneth D. Rose (2006) ISBN 978-0-801-88472-6 p. 326
18. ^ Thorington, Richard W.; Koprowski, John 50.; Steele, Michael A.; Whatton, James F. (2012). Squirrels of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 12. ISBN978-1421404691.
19. ^ "Squirrel Rehab". Retrieved nineteen August 2017.
20. ^ "Why do squirrels have bushy tails? | Nuts Nigh Squirrels".
21. ^ "Red & Greyness Squirrels in Massachusetts". MassWildlife. Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. Archived from the original on 17 May 2013. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
22. ^ Törmälä, Timo; Vuorinen, Hannu; Hokkanen, Heikki (1980). "Timing of cyclic activity in the flight squirrel in central Finland". Acta Theriologica. 25 (32–42): 461–474. doi:10.4098/at.arch.80-42.
23. ^ Merja Laavola: Eläinten elintasosairaudet näkyvät Seurasaaressa. Vartti Etelä-Helsinki, Sanoma Kaupunkilehdet, 2010. (in Finnish)
24. ^ "Russian squirrel pack 'kills dog'". bbc.co.uk. i December 2005. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
25. ^ Richard W. Thorington, Katie Ferrell – Squirrels: the fauna answer guide, JHU Printing, 2006, ISBN 0-8018-8402-0, ISBN 978-0-8018-8402-3, p. 75.
26. ^ Peiman, Kathryn (June 2016). "Sublethal consequences of urban life for wild vertebrates". Environmental Reviews. 24 (4): 416–425. doi:ten.1139/er-2016-0029. hdl:1807/74036.
27. ^ Friggens, Thou. (2002). "Carnivory on Desert Cottontails by Texas Antelope Ground Squirrels". The Southwestern Naturalist. 47 (one): 132–133. doi:10.2307/3672818. JSTOR 3672818.
28. ^ Bailey, B. (1923). "Meat-eating propensities of some rodents of Minnesota". Journal of Mammalogy. four (2): 129. doi:ten.1093/jmammal/iv.two.129.
29. ^ Wistrand, East.H. (1972). "Predation on a Snake by Spermophilus tridecemlineatus". American Midland Naturalist. 88 (2): 511–512. doi:10.2307/2424389. JSTOR 2424389.
30. ^ "Russian Squirrel Pack Kills Dog". BBC News . Retrieved 7 August 2020.
31. ^ "Cornwall squirrel 'pack' attacks boy, 3". BBC News . Retrieved 7 August 2020.
32. ^ Lafrance, Adrienne. "When Squirrels Assault - A cautionary tale". The Atlantic . Retrieved seven August 2020.
33. ^ Whitaker, J.O. (1972). "Nutrient and external parasites of Spermophilus tridecemlineatus in Vigo County, Indiana". Journal of Mammalogy. 53 (3): 644–648. doi:ten.2307/1379067. JSTOR 1379067.
34. ^ Bradley, West. G. (1968). "Food habits of the antelope ground squirrel in southern Nevada". Periodical of Mammalogy. 49 (i): fourteen–21. doi:10.2307/1377723. JSTOR 1377723.
35. ^ Morgart, J. R. (May 1985). "Carnivorous behavior by a white-tailed antelope ground squirrel Ammospermophilus leucurus". The Southwestern Naturalist. 30 (2): 304–305. doi:10.2307/3670745. JSTOR 3670745.
36. ^ Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.Thou. (2011). "Grade Mammalia Linnaeus, 1758. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness" (PDF). Zootaxa. 3148: 56–60. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3148.1.9.
37. ^ Emry, R. J.; Korth, Due west. W. (2007). "A new genus of squirrel (Rodentia, Sciuridae) from the mid-Cenozoic of North America". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 27 (3): 693–698. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[693:ANGOSR]two.0.CO;2.
38. ^ ^{a b c} Steppan & Hamm (2006)
39. ^ Steppan et al. (2004), Steppan & Hamm (2006)
40. ^ Goud, Naveen (18 January 2017). "Squirrels cause more financial damage to critical Infrastructure than Cyber Attacks". Cybersecurity Insiders . Retrieved 23 July 2019.

Farther reading

• Milton, Katherine (1984): "Family Sciuridae". In: Macdonald, D. (ed.): The Encyclopedia of Mammals: 612–623. Facts on File, New York. ISBN 0-87196-871-1.
• Steppan, Scott J. and Hamm, Shawn M. (2006): Tree of Life Web Project – "Sciuridae (Squirrels)". Version of 13 May 2006. Retrieved x Dec 2007.
• Steppan, South. J.; Storz, B. L.; Hoffmann, R. Due south. (2004). "Nuclear Dna phylogeny of the squirrels (Mammalia: Rodentia) and the development of arboreality from c-myc and RAG1". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 30 (three): 703–719. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00204-five. PMID 15012949.
• Thorington, R.W. and Hoffmann, R.S. (2005): "Family Sciuridae". In: Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference: 754–818. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
• Whitaker, John O. Jr. and Elman, Robert (1980): The Audubon Lodge Field Guide to North American Mammals (2nd ed.). Alfred Knopf, New York. ISBN 0-394-50762-2

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sciuridae.

Look up squirrel in Wiktionary, the gratuitous dictionary.

• Tree of Life: Sciuridae
• Squirrel Tracks: How to place squirrel tracks in the wild
• National Geographic link on Squirrels
• List of names of squirrel taxa

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirrel

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