Fiery squirrel

The fiery squirrel, Sciurus flammifer, is a rodent in the family Sciuridae that is endemic to the area south of the Orinoco River in the state of Bolívar, Venezuela. Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas first described it as a species in 1904, its genus placement has changed several times since, and in 2015 de Vivo and Carmignotto reduced it to a subspecies of Hadrosciurus igniventris. It is a large tree squirrel up to 60 centimetres long from head to tail, with a black back streaked with pale yellow to orange, orange to red limbs, an orange tail, a white abdomen and conspicuous pale orange patches behind the ears. Complete melanism and partial albinism have been documented. It lives mainly in closed-canopy lowland rainforest, in old-growth or disturbed secondary growth, and is highly arboreal, foraging high in the canopy. The latest IUCN assessment, in 2008, rated it Data Deficient, with concern over its restricted range and deforestation.