Berdmore's ground squirrel

Berdmore's ground squirrel, Menetes berdmorei, also called the Indochinese ground squirrel or Berdmore's squirrel, is a ground squirrel of Southeast Asia. Its range runs from the east of Myanmar and Yunnan in southern China through to Vietnam and Cambodia. It has a grey-brown back and a white belly, and its most striking mark is a pair of stripes along each flank, a beige one above and a black one below. The head is pointed, so that the animal resembles a mouse or a treeshrew. It measures about 20 centimetres in length, not counting a tail of about 15 centimetres. Rarely found in trees, it spends most of its time in the thick undergrowth of rainforest, but it also turns up in fields and villages and can be extremely abundant in rice fields. Although it is quite common, very little is known about its life history. In spite of its name, it is not a close relative of the ground squirrels of the tribe Marmotini.