Spermophilus brevicauda

Spermophilus brevicauda, known as Brandt's ground squirrel, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae found in eastern Kazakhstan and the northern half of the Xinjiang region of China. A 2007 generic revision and a molecular phylogeny confirmed that it is a species separate from Spermophilus erythrogenys and from the similar S. pallidicauda and S. alashanicus. It is smaller than most Spermophilus species, 165 to 210 millimetres long with a short tail of 30 to 50 millimetres, and weighs up to 440 grams. It is ochre brown with distinctive lighter spots, russet hind feet and paler areas around the eyes. It lives in dry steppes and semi-desert brushlands, singly or communally in burrows where it hibernates in winter and aestivates in summer heat, and its diet is mainly seasonal plant growth, including young shoots, bulbs and tubers.