Bangs's mountain squirrel

Central American Squirrel Mountain

The Central American mountain squirrel ( Syntheosciurus brochus ) is a little known species of tree squirrel that is native only in Costa Rica and Panama. It lives there in montane rain forests at altitudes of 1900-2600 meters, where it mainly the tops of the trees inhabited region, but often comes to the forest floor. In the summit area of the volcano Poas in Costa Rica it lives in a niederwüchsigen, difficult to access for people scrub forest, which consists mainly of Clusia.

This squirrel has a body length from 15 to 18.5 inches, added about 12 to 16 cm tail. It is olive-brown on the upper side and lower side colored orange. Due to some peculiarities of the skull construction and teeth, it is separated from the squirrels and assigned to its own genus Syntheosciurus.

Until the 1980s, this species was known only from four specimens. Especially through the work of zoologists Wells and Giacalone some of the animals have been studied extensively since then. It could be discovered that the mountain squirrel, unlike the squirrels are gregarious. A pair lives with the boy in a tree nest in six to twelve meters. The close binding partner is unique among tree squirrels.