San Joaquin Antelope Squirrel

Taxobox
name = San Joaquin Antelope Squirrel


status = EN
trend = unknown
status_system = iucn2.3
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Rodentia
familia = Sciuridae
genus = "Ammospermophilus"
species = "A. nelsoni"
binomial = "Ammospermophilus nelsoni"
binomial_authority = (Merriam, 1893)

The San Joaquin Antelope Squirrel or Nelson's Antelope Squirrel ("Ammospermophilus nelsoni") is found in the San Joaquin Valley of the U.S. state of California. It is endemic to the region, and is found in a much smaller range today than it originally inhabited. Since the San Joaquin Valley fell under heavy agricultural cultivation, habitat loss combined with rodenticide use has reduced the squirrel's numbers enough that it is now listed as a threatened species.

The San Joaquin Antelope Squirrel is light tan or buffy in color with a white belly and a white streak down each side of its body in the fashion of other antelope squirrels. It is approximately 23 cm (9 in.) in length including its bushy, white-fringed tail. It is omnivorous, feeding mostly on green plants during the winter and insects and carrion when these are available. It occasionally caches food. The squirrels live in small underground familial colonies on sandy, easily excavated grasslands in isolated locations in San Luis Obispo and Kern Counties. Most of today's remaining San Joaquin Antelope Squirrels can be found in the Carrizo Plain, where their original habitat remains undisturbed.

The binomial of this species commemorates the American naturalist Edward William Nelson.

References

* Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is endangered and the criteria used
*Thorington, R. W. Jr. and R. S. Hoffman. 2005. Family Sciuridae. Pp. 754-818 "in" Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.