Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Swin­hoe's striped squir­rels (Tamiops swin­hoei) are widely dis­trib­uted in south­east Asia and most com­mon through­out China, oc­cur­ring in cen­tral and south­ern China and on Hainan Is­land. They are also com­mon in north­ern Myan­mar, north­ern Viet­nam, and may also occur in Laos. (Abramov, et al., 2009; Duck­worth and Lunde, 2008; Ren, et al., 2004)

• Biogeographic Regions
• oriental
  • native

Habi­tat

Tamiops swin­hoei is found pri­mar­ily in the trop­i­cal rain­forests of South­east Asia, but also oc­curs in tem­per­ate forests and res­i­den­tial gar­dens. It typ­i­cally in­hab­its moun­tain­ous areas, rang­ing in el­e­va­tion from 1,000 to 3,900 m above sea level. (Abramov, et al., 2009; Chen, 2009; Duck­worth and Lunde, 2008; Li, et al., 2006; Os­good, 1941; Ren, et al., 2004)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical

• Terrestrial Biomes
• rainforest

• Range elevation

  1,000 to 3,900 m

  to ft

• Average elevation

  2,200 m

  ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Tamiops swin­hoei is small bod­ied, with char­ac­ter­is­tic light yel­low stripes ex­tend­ing from nose to neck on both sides of the body. It also has char­ac­ter­isic white tufts of hair at the pos­te­rior tips of the ears. Cin­na­mon and yel­low stripes run the length of the dor­sum, ex­tend­ing from the cau­dal por­tion of the torso to the base of the tail. No data ex­ists on the av­er­age size and weight of this species, though it ap­pears to be larger than other mem­bers of Tamiops. In ad­di­tion to hav­ing denser fur, which may help in­su­late it at higher el­e­va­tions, dor­sal stripes ap­pear to be less bril­liant than those seen in closely re­lated species and stop at the shoul­ders rather than con­nect­ing with the cheek stripes. Fe­males have longer tails than males by about 1.8%, which is typ­i­cal of ar­bo­real species. (Hayssen, 2008a; Hayssen, 2008b; Li, et al., 2006; Ren, et al., 2004)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

• Average mass

  60 g

  2.11 oz

• Average length

  10 cm

  3.94 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

There is no in­for­ma­tion avail­able con­cern­ing the mat­ing sys­tems of Tamiops swin­hoei have not been stud­ied; how­ever, most species in the fam­ily Sci­uri­dae are polyg­y­nous, and char­ac­ter­ized by in­tense com­pe­ti­tion among males for ac­cess to the es­trous fe­male. (Tamura, 1993)

• Mating System
• polygynous

Lit­tle is known of the re­pro­duc­tive be­hav­ior of Tamiops swin­hoei, how­ever, it has an av­er­age of 3.25 neonates per lit­ter and there are typ­i­cally two lit­ters per year. (Hayssen, 2008a)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  Swinhoe's striped squirrel breeds twice yearly.

• Average number of offspring

  3.25

There is no in­for­ma­tion avail­able con­cern­ing parental care in Tamiops swin­hoei. (Hayssen, 2008a)

Lifes­pan/Longevity

There is no in­for­ma­tion on the av­er­age lifes­pan of Tamiops swin­hoei.

Be­hav­ior

Tamiops swin­hoei is di­ur­nal and ar­bo­real. It nests, for­ages and mates in the canopy and pos­sesses strong adap­ta­tions for ar­bo­real lo­co­mo­tion. It is typ­i­cally so­cial, but there is no ev­i­dence of or­ga­nized so­cial hi­er­ar­chies. It pri­mar­ily for­ages dur­ing the day, and like many seed eat­ing mam­mal and bird species, cre­ates food caches. Al­though lit­tle is know of the gen­eral be­hav­ior of T. swin­hoei specif­i­cally, four pri­mary be­hav­iors have been ob­served dur­ing con­spe­cific en­coun­ters of sci­urids: chase, avoid, ig­nore, and fol­low. Chas­ing oc­curs pri­mar­ily be­tween adult males, whereas avoid and ig­nore are com­mon be­tween both gen­ders and all age classes. Fol­low most often oc­curs be­tween fe­males and young or be­tween males and fe­males. (Hayssen, 2008a; Hayssen, 2008b; Tamura, 1993; Van der Meer, et al., 2008)

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• scansorial
• diurnal
• motile
• social

Home Range

The av­er­age home range size for Tamiops swin­hoei is un­known. (Hayssen, 2008b)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion has not been de­scribed for T. swin­hoei. (Tamura and Yong, 1993; Tamura, 1993)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Tamiops swin­hoei is her­biv­o­rous, and its diet con­sists pri­mar­ily of seeds and plant parts. It is also con­sid­ered a "gin­ger rob­ber" and has been found for­ag­ing in bloom­ing patches of trop­i­cal gin­ger, feed­ing only on the nec­tar. Like other sci­urids, T. swin­hoei cre­ates food caches through­out its home range. (Ren, et al., 2004)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • granivore

• Plant Foods
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• nectar
• sap or other plant fluids

• Foraging Behavior
• stores or caches food

Pre­da­tion

Preda­tors and pre­da­tion avoid­ance be­hav­ior have not been char­ac­ter­ized for Tamiops swin­hoei. It likely faces pre­da­tion risk from the same preda­tors faced by sim­i­lar ar­bo­real tree species oc­cur­ring in South­east Asia (e.g., canids, fe­lids, snakes and rap­tors). (Tamura and Yong, 1993)

Ecosys­tem Roles

As seed preda­tors, Tamiops swin­hoei likely plays an im­por­tant role in the dis­tri­b­u­tion, abun­dance, and di­ver­sity of plant com­mu­ni­ties through­out its ge­o­graphic range. As a "gin­ger rob­ber", it may in­flu­ence the re­pro­duc­tive suc­cess of wild trop­i­cal gin­ger. Gin­ger rob­bing can re­sult in de­creased seed and fruit pro­duc­tion via dam­age to plant re­pro­duc­tive or­gans. How­ever, these detri­men­tal ef­fects have not been de­scribed for trop­i­cal gin­ger plants as a re­sult of the for­ag­ing be­hav­ior of T. swin­hoei. (Ren, et al., 2004; Van der Meer, et al., 2008; Wells, et al., 2004; Wells, et al., 2007)

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

There are no known pos­i­tive ef­fects of Tamiops swin­hoei> on hu­mans. How­ever, hunt­ing of small mam­mals is com­mon in South­east Asia, and this species may func­tion as a food source for hu­mans through­out their ge­o­graphic range. (Wells, et al., 2007)

• Positive Impacts
• food

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse ef­fects of Tamiops swin­hoei on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Tamiops swin­hoei is clas­si­fied as a species of least con­cern on the IUCN's Red List of Threat­ened Species. The species is com­mon through­out South­east Asia; how­ever, log­ging and rain for­est de­struc­tion is com­mon through­out this species ge­o­graphic range, par­tic­u­larly on Hainan Is­land. (Wells, et al., 2007)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  Appendix II

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Janet Minton (au­thor), In­di­ana Uni­ver­sity-Pur­due Uni­ver­sity Fort Wayne, Mark Jor­dan (ed­i­tor), In­di­ana Uni­ver­sity-Pur­due Uni­ver­sity Fort Wayne, John Berini (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff.

Ref­er­ences

Abramov, A., S. Kruskop, A. Shchi­nov. 2009. Small mam­mals of the Dalat Plateau, South­ern Viet­nam. Russ­ian Jour­nal of The­ri­olgy, 8/2: 61-73.

Chen, Y. 2009. Dis­tri­b­u­tion pat­terns and fau­nal char­ac­ter­is­tic of mam­mals on Hainan Is­land of China. Folia Zo­o­log­ica, 58/4: 372-384.

Duck­worth, J., D. Lunde. 2008. "Tamiops swin­hoei" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 03, 2011 at www.​iucnredlist.​org.

Har­ri­son, J., R. Traub. 1950. Ro­dents and in­sec­ti­vores from Se­lan­gor, Malaya. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 31/3: 337-346.

Hayssen, V. 2008. Pat­terns of body and tail length and body mass in Sciuidae. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 89/4: 852-873.

Hayssen, V. 2008. Re­pro­duc­tive ef­fort in squir­rels: eco­log­i­cal, phy­lo­ge­netic, al­lo­met­ric, and lat­i­tu­di­nal pat­terns. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 89/3: 582-606.

Li, S., Q. Feng, J. Yang, Y. Wang. 2006. Dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion of sub­species of Asi­atic striped squir­rels (Tamiops swin­hoei) (Milne-Ed­wards) (Ro­den­tia:Sci­uri­dae) in China with de­scrip­tion of a new sub­species. Zo­o­log­i­cal Stud­ies, 45/2: 180-189.

Os­good, W. 1941. Re­view: [un­ti­tled]. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 22/2: 206-208.

Ren, P., J. Gao, Q. Li, X. Deng. 2004. The striped squir­rel (Tamiops swin­hoie hainanus) as a nec­tar rob­ber of gin­ger (Alpinia kwangsien­sis). Biotrop­ica, 36/4: 633-636.

Tamura, N. 1993. Role of sound com­mu­ni­ca­tion in mat­ing of Malaysian Cal­losci­u­rus (Sci­uri­dae). Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 74/2: 468-476.

Tamura, N., H. Yong. 1993. Vo­cal­iza­tions in re­sponse to preda­tors in three species of Malaysian Cal­losci­u­rus (Sci­uri­dae). Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 74/3: 703-714.

Thor­ing­ton, R., K. Fer­rell. 2006. Squir­rels: The An­i­mal An­swer Guide. Bal­ti­more: Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Van der Meer, P., P. Kunne, A. Brun­st­ing, L. Dibor, P. Jansen. 2008. Ev­i­dence for scat­ter-hoard­ing in a trop­i­cal peat swamp for­est in Malaysia. Jour­nal of Trop­i­cal Foor­est Sci­ence, 20/4: 340-343.

Wells, K., E. Kalko, M. Lakim, M. Pfeif­fer. 2007. Ef­fects of rain for­est log­ging on species rich­ness and as­sem­blage com­po­si­tion of small mam­mals in South­east Asia. Jour­nal of Bio­geog­ra­phy, 34: 1087-1099.

Wells, K., M. Pfeif­fer, M. Lakim, K. Lin­sen­mair. 2004. Use of ar­bo­real and ter­res­trial space by a small mam­mal com­mu­nity in a trop­i­cal rain for­est in Bor­neo, Malaysia. Jour­nal of Bio­geog­ra­phy, 31: 641-652.