Pine squirrel

Taxobox
name = Pine Squirrels
fossil_range = Middle Pleistocene - Recent

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image_width = 250px
image_caption = American Red Squirrel ("Tamiasciurus hudsonicus")
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Rodentia
familia = Sciuridae
tribus = Sciurini
genus = "Tamiasciurus"
genus_authority = Trouessart, 1880
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
*"Tamiasciurus douglasii"
*"Tamiasciurus hudsonicus"

Pine squirrels are squirrels of the genus "Tamiasciurus". Currently only two species are classified in this genus, the American Red Squirrel "T. hudsonicus" and the Douglas Squirrel "T. douglasii". Both are native to North America: pine squirrels can be found in the northern and western United States, most of Canada and Alaska.

Description

Pine squirrels are small tree squirrels with bushy tails, and along with members of the genus "Sciurus", they are members of the large family Sciuridae. The Sciuridae conform most closely to the commonly held idea of what a squirrel looks like and how it behaves.

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.

In southeastern Arizona there is a relict population of "T. hudsonicus" considered sufficiently distinct to be awarded sub-species status, "T. hudsonicus grahamenis," the Mount Graham Pine Squirrel, reduced to a few hundred members on the Madrean sky islands conifer forests at higher, cooler altitudes. They are the southernmost of the entire species, left stranded when desertification reduced the area of conifer forest that existed in glacial times. Some authors treat the Mount Graham Pine Squirrel as a distinct species, "T. grahamensis".

The name "Tamiasciurus" comes from the Latin for "hoarder squirrel".