Sciurus ignitus (Rodentia: Sciuridae)

Abstract

Sciurus ignitus (Gray, 1867) is a Neotropical tree squirrel commonly known as the Bolivian squirrel. It is a small-bodied, understory and mid-canopy dweller that occurs within the evergreen lowland and montane tropical rain forests along the eastern slope of the Andes in Peru, Bolivia, and extreme northern Argentina, and the western Amazon Basin in Brazil and Peru between 200 and 2,700 m in elevation. S. ignitus is 1 of 28 species in the genus Sciurus, and 1 of 8 in the subgenus Guerlinguetus. The taxonomic status of this species, as with other small sciurids in Peru and Bolivia, remains ambiguous. S. ignitus is currently listed as "Data Deficient" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.