Western Gray Squirrel

About the Western Gray Squirrel

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. There are three geographical subspecies: S. g. griseus (central Washington to the western Sierra Nevada in central California); S. g. nigripes (from south of San Francisco Bay to San Luis Obispo County, California); and S. g. anthonyi (which ranges from San Luis Obispo to northern Baja California).

In some landscapes, the western gray squirrel has lost habitat or experienced local extinction due to competition with other squirrel species and other pressures on their population. The western gray squirrel was first described by George Ord in 1818 based on notes taken by Lewis and Clark at The Dalles in Wasco County, Oregon.

Sciurus griseus is the largest tree squirrel in the Sierra Nevada and Central California range. It has plantigrade, pentadactyl feet with two phalanges. Compared with the eastern gray squirrel S. carolinensis or the fox squirrel S. niger (which... Wikipedia →