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In Norse mythology, the squirrel Ratatoskr is a messenger who scurries up and down the trunk of the world-tree Yggdrasil, carrying malicious gossip and insults back and forth between the dragon Níðhöggr, who sits at the bottom of the tree gnawing on its roots, and the hawk Veðrfölnir, who sits at the top of the tree keeping watch.
The fox squirrel (Sciurus niger), also known as the eastern fox squirrel or Bryant's fox squirrel, [3] is the largest species of tree squirrel native to North America. It is sometimes mistaken for the American red squirrel or eastern gray squirrel in areas where the species co-exist , though they differ in size and coloration.
In addition, squirrels may inhabit a permanent tree den hollowed out in the trunk or a large branch of a tree. [40] Eastern gray squirrels are crepuscular, [24] or more active during the early and late hours of the day, and tend to avoid the heat in the middle of a summer day. [40] They do not hibernate. [41]
The western gray squirrel (Sciurus griseus) 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 .
Red squirrels (Tamiasciurus) fall within the clade that includes flying squirrels and other tree squirrels (e.g., Sciurus). [6] There are 25 recognized subspecies of the American red squirrel. [7] The southwestern red squirrel (T. fremonti) was long considered conspecific with T. hudsonicus, but a 2016 phylogenetic study found it to be a ...
Squirrels eat a variety of nuts, berries, fruit, conifer tree cones, greens, and fungi. ©Dmitry Potashkin/iStock via Getty Images Squirrels are masters at storage and also deception.
The main group of squirrels can be split into five subfamilies: the Callosciurinae, 60 species mostly found in South East Asia; the Ratufinae, 4 cat-sized species found in south and southeast Asia; the Sciurinae, which contains the flying squirrels (Pteromyini) and the tree squirrels, 83 species found worldwide; [47] Sciurillinae, a single ...
The currently accepted scientific name for Abert's squirrel is Sciurus aberti Woodhouse, 1853. [4] Woodhouse had initially described the species as Sciurus dorsalis in 1852, but this name turned out to be preoccupied by Sciurus dorsalis Gray, 1849 (now a subspecies of variegated squirrel S. variegatoides), and thus the present species was renamed.