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Deppe's squirrel
Tamaulipas, Mexico through most of the Yucatan Peninsula and to
northwest Costa Rica. It is usually found at elevations between 300
and 3000 meters.
Deppe's squirrel is locally common in areas of dense forest
vegetation and high humidity. It is found in all kinds of tropical
forest, including oak forest, pine-oak forest, cloud forest, ebony
forest, and lowland forest. It disappears from areas that are highly
disturbed by agriculture.
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Deppe's squirrel
Sciurus deppei (Deppe's squirrel) is a small squirrel. Its
upperparts are brown, ranging from dark olive brown to reddish
brown. Its underparts are paler, usually white or a pale shade of
grey. The ears are medium-sized and without long tufts. The tail is
short, narrow, and usually dark brown with a border of pale-tipped
hairs. According to some reports, the forelegs and feet can be a
shade of dark grey rather than brown.
Deppe's squirrel can be told from most other squirrels of this
region by its small size, short tail, and medium-sized ears. It can
be told apart from Sciurus richmondi and Sciurus granatensis by its
pale, not orange, underparts.
Reproduction
Deppe's squirrel can breed year-round, but the average number of
litters born each year is not known. Typically young are born at the
end of the dry season, and the litter size varies between two and
eight but is usually four. Males show enlarged testes when they are
sexually active.
There is one report that Deppe's squirrel is able to breed with
Sciurus yucatanensis, but it is not known whether or not the
offspring were fertile.
Behavior
The squirrel is diurnal, spending most of its time in trees and
sometimes descending to the ground to forage for food. Compared with
other Sciurus species, Deppe's squirrel is less active and less
often seen moving on small branches. It prefers moving on large
branches, tree trunks, and through trees with a lot of cavities
(such as strangler figs). When alarmed by movement, the squirrel
moves to the opposite side of a tree trunk or branch and remains
motionless. Occasionally it will chatter at threatening animals.
In trees, the squirrel is found lower than 10 meters about 30% of
the time, between 10 and 20 meters about 40 percent of the time, and
higher than 20 meters about 30 percent of the time. It moves very
quickly between trees and can make long-distance leaps between
branches.
Because of its dark fur, the squirrel is rarely seen unless its in
motion or silhouetted against leaves in the canopy. Deppe's squirrel
is sometimes found in noisy groups of less than ten. Their call can
be high-pitched like a bird's trill, but more frequently the call
consists of several high chirps sounded close together. Despite
their sometimes occurring in groups, Deppe's squirrel is not
considered a social animal, and individuals are usually solitary.
Nests are made in tree trunks or formed out of leaves and twigs.
Leaf nests are usually about 30 cm in diameter and at least 7.5
meters above the forest floor.
Food Habits
Deppe's squirrel feeds on seeds, fruit, and foliage. Analysis of
Deppe's squirrel diets have shown it eats figs, fungi, acorns,
berries, and the fruits of trees such as Brosimum alicastrum,
Cymbopetalum baillonii, Pinus caribea, Poulsenia armata, and
Manilkara zapota. Most of the time it is an arboreal feeder, but it
has been seen on the forest floor eating fungi, berries, and acorns.
Deppe's squirrel can do great damage to corn crops, especially when
corn crops are situated in clearings of dense tropical forest.
Deppe's squirrel eats the corn in a characteristic way, by cutting
away a portion of the husk and eating only part of the corn ear
beneath. Since Deppe's squirrels are too small to be a good food
source, they are mainly killed to prevent crop damage.
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