Family: Sciuridae, Squirrels view all from this family

Description A gray squirrel with a black tail that is washed in white above and marked with an orange or rusty-brown center stripe below. Back and sides are salt-and-peppered steel gray, often mottled with brown or rusty yellow. Underparts are white.

Dimensions 45-57cm, 20-31cm, 527-884g

Breeding Females have only a single litter per year, and average litter size is 3.

Habitat Forests & woodlands, Canyons & caves

Range Southwest

Discussion Although particularly fond of walnuts, they feed on acorns, juniper berries, flowers, buds, and pine seeds. Rarely seen except when they come down to the ground to forage. Shy and secretive, they rarely vocalize, and tend to slip away undetected when disturbed. Uncommon in dense, mature, riparian broadleaf forests of Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico, primarily in the pine-oak woodland zones of various mountain ranges below the Mogollon rim.