Sciurus yucatanensisYucatan squirrel
Geographic Range
The Yucatan, Tabasco, and Eastern Chiapas in Mexico, and northern Guatemala.
- Biogeographic Regions
- neotropical
Physical Description
- Other Physical Features
- endothermic
- bilateral symmetry
Reproduction
Breeding takes place in April and May. Litters range from 2-5 individuals.
- Key Reproductive Features
- gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
- sexual
Behavior
This rodent is nocturnal and very timid. Little else is known about the behaviour of this organism.
- Key Behaviors
- motile
Communication and Perception
Food Habits
Unknown
Conservation Status
-
- IUCN Red List
-
Least Concern
More information
Contributors
Bret Weinstein (author), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Glossary
- Neotropical
-
living in the southern part of the New World. In other words, Central and South America.
- bilateral symmetry
-
having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.
- chemical
-
uses smells or other chemicals to communicate
- endothermic
-
animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.
- motile
-
having the capacity to move from one place to another.
- native range
-
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
- sexual
-
reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female
- tactile
-
uses touch to communicate
References
Mammalian Species #506
Walker's Mammals of the World, fifth edition; Nowak, R. ed.; 1991; Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 580-583