Arctic ground squirrel

The Arctic ground squirrel (Urocitellus parryii), known in Inuktitut as siksik, is a ground squirrel of the family Sciuridae native to the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Asia. It is the largest species in the genus Urocitellus, its range reaches farther north than that of any other squirrel, and it is the only member of the squirrel family with a Holarctic distribution, running from the west coast of Hudson Bay across Alaska and Yukon into the Russian Far East. It has beige-tan fur with a lightly spotted back, a shorter face and smaller ears than tree squirrels because it lives by burrowing, and a dark tail. Males average about 800 g and females about 700 g, but body mass swings sharply with the seasons because the animals roughly double their weight over the summer before they hibernate. Around the Aleutian Islands its pelts have long been used for the ruffs of parkas, which is why it is sometimes called the parka squirrel.