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Sciurus aureogaster
I think this is just about the cutest squirrel I have ever seen. Some were silver grey with golden brown splotches and others were golden brown with silver splotches. They are used to people and come close if you offer food, but when they approach they always cover themselves with their tails and hide their faces (3rd picture). This like the Grey Tree Squirrel, but people in Mexico City call it "Ardilla Pinto" for the variation in coloring that different individuals demonstrate. This species is found in Guatemala and southern Mexico.
Wooded area of Chapultepec Park below the Castle. Center of Mexico City.
This is an interesting story about the history of Squirrels in cities: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-an...
Spotted on Feb 8, 2008
Submitted on Feb 8, 2014
5 Comments
Thank you gatorfellows :)
nice series :)
thx for the info, lauren, glad you could ID it! :)
Thank you venusflytrap, I thought maybe it was a Fox Squirrel too, but then I found some articles about the squirrels of Mexico City and it seems it is the Red Bellied Squirrel with an origin south of Mexico City instead of from the north. See the two reference articles; one of them talks about the increase in color variability in animals that have lost predation pressure (such as city squirrels and pigeons) - very interesting!
fox squirrel?