Having finally seen rock squirrel in August, I'll agree with sea-kangaroo that the white stripes do make this guy look more like a CA ground squirrel than a rock squirrel. Much more likely that the IUCN ranges are wrong.
By the way - I'm sure sea-kangaroos renewed attention to this comment thread was prompted by the updates generated by me committing the Helgen et al., 2009 taxonomic updates to Spermophilus with the new taxonomic update system - this is the first time I've done an update to a much observed clade on iNat. Worked pretty well I think - did all the updates generated annoy any of you?
Comments & Identifications
the tail looks way too bushy to me for this to be a CA Ground Squirrel. Also the body shape is leaner and meaner!
Good point on the tail, but I was chalking that up to photo angle. The coloration really looks ground squirrel to me though. Hopefully, more people will weigh in.
Okay, so I put a couple other photos from that day. I hope it helps!
There's also http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/46073-Spermophilus-variegatus, which is a better fit for the location, at least according to our range data. Anyone have that California Mammals book?
Speaking of which, if this was in Hahamogna Park in Pasadena, CA, your coordinates are off.
With the additional photos, I'll stand by my identification.
Still looks ground squirrel to me. It's a stand-off!
Cal. Mammals Book wasn't much help. There was a suggestion at another site that Sciurus niger (Fox Squirrel) had been introduced into the LA Basin but they appear to have more of a reddish undercoat. Let's just go with "Squirrel"
To me that looks like a classic Spermophilus with the coloration and shape - doesn't really look like Sciurus at all to me. I'm not to familiar with Rock Squirrel but it certainly looks like other photos of them on the web
I've changed my ID to Spermophilus. I'm still convinced it's a CA ground squirrel, but respect the fact that there is the other option for that area.
The only way to settle this debate is to trap one so that we can examine the dental structure. By the way I find no reference to Rock Squirrels in the Mammals of the Pacific States.
I'll be in LA this weekend - you bring the traps!
Rock squirrels and CA ground squirrels are very similar, but the California version always has a distinct pale band around the shoulders. (also the Smithsonian, both my field guides, and my own experience don't have rock squirrels' range anywhere near LA).
Having finally seen rock squirrel in August, I'll agree with sea-kangaroo that the white stripes do make this guy look more like a CA ground squirrel than a rock squirrel. Much more likely that the IUCN ranges are wrong.
By the way - I'm sure sea-kangaroos renewed attention to this comment thread was prompted by the updates generated by me committing the Helgen et al., 2009 taxonomic updates to Spermophilus with the new taxonomic update system - this is the first time I've done an update to a much observed clade on iNat. Worked pretty well I think - did all the updates generated annoy any of you?
It was, yes! I had 96 ground squirrel-related updates on my dash this morning. I like the auto-update of species names, but I do wish it would auto-update more thoroughly-- some of my IDs on other people's observations seem to have been updated for me, but others haven't, like:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/126762
which is a little unfortunate since if I don't manually check all 96 squirrel IDs (which is a bit tiresome even for me) then I sometimes become a "disagree" and the observation loses Research Grade status.
hmm that must be a bug
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