Junín red squirrel

The Junín red squirrel (Sciurus pyrrhinus) is a tree squirrel from Peru and Ecuador. It is a relatively large squirrel, with a head and body length of about 25 centimetres, dark red fur grizzled with black, a chestnut brown tail slightly shorter than the head and body together, and black whiskers and ear edges. The underparts vary between individuals from white through red. It lives on the eastern slopes of the Andes in central Peru, from Huánuco in the north to Ayacucho and Cusco in the south, in both lowland rainforest and higher montane forest, and may range further east toward the Bolivian border; a single specimen collected in 1920 comes from Zamora-Chinchipe Province in Ecuador. Little is known of its biology. It is diurnal and arboreal, is often seen in small groups, and is believed to be fairly numerous and more tolerant of logging and hunting than some other squirrels, although the Peruvian Ministry of the Environment classes it as Vulnerable because of its limited range.