Douglas squirrel

The Douglas squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii) is a pine squirrel of western North America, found from the Pacific Northwest, including the southwestern coast of British Columbia, to central California, with an isolated subspecies, Mearns's squirrel, in northern Baja California. It is also called the chickaree or pine squirrel, names it shares with the American red squirrel, whose niche it largely replaces along the Pacific coast. John Muir called it by far the most interesting and influential of the California squirrels. Adults are about 33 centimetres long including a tail of roughly 13 centimetres and weigh between 150 and 300 grams. In summer the back is greyish or greenish brown with a pale orange chest and belly, in winter the coat is browner with a grayer underside, and there is a white eye-ring. It lives in coniferous forest, preferring old-growth or mature second-growth stands, is active by day through the year and defends a territory. It feeds mostly on conifer seeds and stores cones in middens, and its predators include Pacific martens, bobcats, northern goshawks and owls.