Bangs's mountain squirrel

Bangs's mountain squirrel (Syntheosciurus brochus) is a poorly known tree squirrel that lives only in Costa Rica and Panama. It inhabits mountain rain forest between about 1,900 and 2,600 metres, mostly in the treetops and sometimes on the forest floor, and one of its habitats is a Clusia forest at the summit of Poás Volcano in Costa Rica that people can hardly reach. It is small, with a head and body of about 15 centimetres and a tail of 13 centimetres, an olive brown back and an orange-red belly. The shape of its skull and teeth led zoologists to place it in its own monotypic genus Syntheosciurus, apart from the typical tree squirrels of Sciurus. Only four animals were known until the 1980s; later study, notably by N. M. Wells and J. Giacalone, found the squirrels sociable, living in pairs with their young in tree nests 6 to 12 metres above ground.