''Sciurus ingrami'', usually called Ingram's squirrel in English, is a squirrel found in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. It is known as ''serelepe'' in southeastern Brazil. It is found in the Atlantic Forest

Biome A biome () is a distinct geographical region with specific climate, vegetation, and animal life. It consists of a biological community that has formed in response to its physical environment and regional climate. In 1935, Tansley added the ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and

Misiones Province Misiones (, ''Missions'') is one of the Provinces of Argentina, 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the northeastern corner of the country in the Mesopotamia, Argentina, Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by Paraguay to the northwest, Brazil ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. It is regarded variously as a species, or as a subspecies of the Brazilian Squirrel ''Sciurus aestuans'' or ''Sciurus (Guerlinguetus) brasiliensis''. It is solitary and territorial, but has been seen to act together and mob a predatory cat, the

margay The margay (''Leopardus wiedii'') is a small wild cat native to Mexico, Central and South America. A solitary and nocturnal felid, it lives mainly in primary evergreen and deciduous forest. Until the 1990s, margays were hunted for the wildl ...

Diet

In the moist highland forests of ''

Araucaria angustifolia ''Araucaria angustifolia'', the Paraná pine, Brazilian pine or candelabra tree (, or ), is a critically endangered species in the Pinophyta, conifer genus ''Araucaria''. Although the common names in various languages refer to the species as a " ...

'' on the Misiones plateau and surrounding areas this squirrel subsists mostly on the nuts of '' Syagrus romanzoffiana''. In a secondary ''Araucaria angustifolia'' forest in the Parque Recreativo Primavera in the vicinity of the city of

Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná (state), Paraná in Southern Brazil. The city's population was 1,773,718 , making it the List of cities in Brazil by population, eighth most populous city in Brazil and the larg ...

, Paraná, 1400 hours in a single year's time was spent observing the feeding behaviour of this squirrel. Although it fed on ten plant species, it obtained most of its diet from the nuts of '' Syagrus romanzoffiana'' (queen palm) throughout the year, but it punctuated this with peaks of feeding on the seeds of ''Araucaria angustifolia'' in the fall and winter, and acorns of the non-native ''

Quercus robur ''Quercus robur'', the pedunculate oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native plant, native to most of Europe and western Asia, and is widely cultivated in other temperate regions. It ...

'' (English oak, as ''Q. pedunculata'' in the study) in the summer. Mushrooms were also important in the winter and spring. Other introduced plant species were lesser but substantial food items, as such the seeds of ''

Pinus taeda ''Pinus taeda'', commonly known as loblolly pine, is one of several pines native to the Southeastern United States, from East Texas to Florida, and north to southern New Jersey. The wood industry classifies the species as a southern yellow pine. ...

'' (loblolly pine) in the winter and the nuts of ''

Castanea sativa The sweet chestnut (''Castanea sativa''), also known as the Spanish chestnut or European chestnut, is a species of tree in the family Fagaceae, native to Southern Europe and Asia Minor, and widely cultivated throughout the Temperate climate, te ...

'' (chestnut) in the spring and summer were quite often consumed. Other minor but regular plants were the nuts of the native '' Butia eriospatha'' (woolly jelly palm) in the spring and summer, pips of the non-native '' Eriobotrya japonica'' (loquat) in the winter, the native ''

Eugenia uniflora ''Eugenia uniflora'' is a flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae, native to tropical South America’s east coast, ranging from Suriname, French Guiana to southern Brazil, as well as Uruguay and parts of Paraguay and Argentina. It is also kn ...

'' in the spring and summer, and the native '' Rhamnus sphaerosperma'' in the summer and fall, as well as flowers and tree bark. '' Symplocos uniflora'' was a rare food item in the summer.

References

Sciurus Rodents of Brazil Mammals of Argentina Fauna of the Atlantic Forest Mammals described in 1901 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas {{Squirrel-stub