Association of the southern Amazon red squirrel Urosciurus spadiceus Olfers, 1818 with mixed-species bird flocks

Della‐Flora, Franchesco; Melo, Geruza Leal; Sponchiado, Jonas; Cáceres, Nilton C.

doi:10.1515/mammalia-2012-0068

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Natural history studies were found for most of the well‐studied species (Heaney & Thorington , Glanz , Alvarenga & Talamoni , Della‐Flora et al. ) as well as for exotic squirrels in Argentina (Pedreira et al. ) and in the Florida Keys, Florida, USA (Brown & McGuire ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Natural history studies usually contained extensive lists and tables of the taxa with which the squirrels interacted (consumed, dispersed, predated by, used for nest building, etc.). Natural history studies were found for most of the well-studied species (Heaney & Thorington 1978, Glanz 1984, Alvarenga & Talamoni 2006, Della-Flora et al 2013) as well as for exotic squirrels in Argentina (Pedreira et al 2017) and in the Florida Keys, Florida, USA (Brown & McGuire 1975).…”

Section: Squirrel Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Records of non-aggressive interactions were found for only three squirrel species. The squirrel Hadrosciurus spadiceus is known to participate in mixed bird flocks in the Brazilian Pantanal, together with at least 38 bird species, including the nuclear species Cantorchilus guarayanus (Della-Flora et al 2013). The squirrel Microsciurus flaviventer is also known to participate in mixed bird flocks, but, with the exception of the nuclear species Thamnomanes caesius, the author did not specify which bird species made up the mixed flock (Buitron-Jurado & Tobar 2007).…”

Section: Non-aggressive Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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NEOSQUIRREL: a data set of ecological knowledge on Neotropical squirrels

2019

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The squirrels (Sciuridae), with 292 species, make up the second most diverse family of rodents. Squirrels play important roles as seed and spore dispersers and seed predators in all regions where they occur. In Neotropical regions, around 28 species of squirrel are recognised. However, our knowledge of the ecology of the Neotropical Sciuridae is severely incomplete, lacking in the most basic ecological information for most species. We reviewed the literature in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, for all squirrel species in the Neotropical biogeographic region, summarising ecological interactions between squirrels and the local biota, population density records, the number of publications, and the distribution of study sites. We found information for 20 squirrel species (71% of the recognised species), from 15 countries, in 48 publications containing 126 population density records and 155 publications containing 649 ecological interactions. The most studied species were Guerlinguetus brasiliensis, Notosciurus granatensis, and Sciurus variegatoides, with 53% of all publications, whereas for eight species of Microsciurus, we found no publications. The density of Neotropical squirrels varied from 0.08 to 100 individuals per km2 and was negatively correlated with forest area. Neotropical squirrels were recorded eating 174 plant taxa, five fungus taxa, four invertebrate taxa, and one species of vertebrate. Palms were common in the diet of squirrels (30 palm species, 27% of feeding records). Squirrels cached 28 plant species, of which 15 were palms. Sixty‐five taxa of parasites are documented to occur in Neotropical squirrels, and the most common were Enderleinellus lice. Zoonotic parasites, including trypanosomes, Leptospira spp., Leishmania spp., and plague were also reported. Our review reveals the main information gaps in the current knowledge about the ecology of Neotropical Sciuridae and maps the geographic distribution of the available information throughout South and Central America. Squirrels often thrive in small forest fragments and fulfil important roles as seed dispersers and prey for mesopredators.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Squirrel Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Non-aggressive Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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NEOSQUIRREL: a data set of ecological knowledge on Neotropical squirrels

2019

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“…Foraging with mixed flocks is seen in southern Amazon red squirrels, palm squirrels (Funambulus spp. ), Western striped squirrels (Tamiops mcclellandii), Indochinese ground squirrels (Menetes berdmorei), and beautiful squirrels (Kotagama and Goodale 2004, Goodale and Kotagama 2005, Della-Flora et al 2012, Limparungpatthanakij et al 2017). Eavesdropping on the alarm calls of or foraging with other species may especially be beneficial to solitary species, territorial species, or species that live in dense habitat, such as tropical rain forests, where group vigilance from conspecifics is limited.…”

Section: Alarm Callsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behaviors associated with vocal communication of squirrels

Diggins

2021

Ecosphere

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Vocal communication is an important method squirrels (Sciuridae) use to transfer information from one individual to others. While behaviors associated with vocal communication have been explored in individual species or single call-types in specific groups of squirrels, no comprehensive review of these behaviors exists for Sciuridae. Herein, I review the current literature to describe behaviors associated with vocal communication in three groups of squirrels: ground squirrels, tree squirrels, and flying squirrels. I discuss the behavioral functions of squirrel vocalizations. A wide variety of behaviors are associated with particular call-types produced by squirrels, including alarm, agonistic, discomfort, affiliative, mating, and neonatal calls. There are large knowledge gaps in cataloging the vocal repertoires and associated behaviors of many species of squirrels, including commonly studied species such as marmots and ground squirrels, as alarm calls are typically focused on and other call-types are understudied or ignored. Since vocal communication is important to the development, reproduction, and survival of squirrels, further understanding the biological and ecological drivers behind vocal repertoires is critical to evaluating the ethology of this family as a whole.

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