Eurasian Red Squirrel

About the Eurasian Red Squirrel

The red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), also called Eurasian red squirrel, is a species of tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus. It is an arboreal and primarily herbivorous rodent and common throughout Eurasia. There have been over 40 described subspecies of the red squirrel, but the taxonomic status of some of these is uncertain. A study published in 1971 recognises 16 subspecies and has served as a basis for subsequent taxonomic work. Although the validity of some subspecies is labelled with uncertainty because of the large variation in red squirrels even within a single region, others are relatively distinctive. At present, there are 23 recognized subspecies of the red squirrel.

A number of subspecies of S. vulgaris have been classified as distinct species. S. v. meridionalis of South Italy was elevated to species status as the Calabrian black squirrel in 2017, which descends from a single source population in central Calabria that became isolated in the Middle Pleistocene. The Japanese squirrel, Sciurus lis, was also historically classified as a subspecies of S. vulgaris, although scientific opinion shifted towards classifying it as a distinct species beginning in the... Wikipedia →