David’s Rock Squirrel

1 David’s Rock Squirrel Breed Overview

David’s Rock Squirrel (Sciurus davidianus), also called squirrel, fur rat, cliff rat, rock rat, brush rat, and rock squirrel, is alert and likes to inhabit rocky mountainous and hilly areas, being semi-arboreal and semi-terrestrial.

David’s Rock Squirrel is mainly distributed in Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, and other provinces. In hilly and mountainous areas with large numbers, it is one of the important pest rodents of agriculture and forestry.

Chinese name: David’s Rock Squirrel

Chinese aliases: squirrel, fur rat, cliff rat, rock rat, brush rat, fur raccoon, brush fur

English name: David’s Rock Squirrel

Binomial name: Sciurus davidianus

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Subphylum: Vertebrata

Class: Mammalia

Subclass: Eutheria

Suborder: Sciuromorpha

Family: Sciuridae

Subfamily: Sciurinae

Genus: Sciurinae

Species: David’s Rock Squirrel

Distribution: Distributed in Hebei, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Anhui, and Hubei, among other regions

2 David’s Rock Squirrel Physical Characteristics

The ideal adult David’s Rock Squirrel body length is 18–25 cm, with a tail length close to the body length; the sparse, fluffy tail fur is very beautiful. A pair of bright black eyes gives a very clever impression.

The David’s Rock Squirrel has fairly large, obvious ears, a white ring around the eyes, slightly short limbs, and a fluffy, sparse tail. The back fur is blue-gray, and the belly and inner limbs are yellow-gray, with a white chin.

The David’s Rock Squirrel’s back is dark gray with a yellow-brown tint; the belly is orange-yellow slightly tinged with pale yellow or light yellow-brown; the tail is fluffy, with obvious white hair tips above, on the sides, and at the tip, and yellow-brown in the center below; the eye socket is pale yellow-white to light yellow-brown; the inside and outside of the ears have black-brown hair, and behind the ear is a white spot extending back to both sides of the neck, forming an indistinct short white streak; the throat usually has a white spot; the hind foot’s back is similar in color to or black like the body back, and the sole of the hind foot is densely haired with no elongated plantar pad.

3 David’s Rock Squirrel Living Environment

Generally, squirrels enter hibernation after October each year, but the David’s Rock Squirrel is different — it never hibernates. It likes to inhabit rocky mountainous and hilly areas, being a semi-arboreal and semi-terrestrial animal.

The David’s Rock Squirrel is commonly seen active at the forest edge, thickets, farmland, and near dwellings by day. It nests in rock crevices and caves under thickets. Although it can climb trees, it mainly resides among rocks, generally nesting in rock crevices. It is active by day; in summer it is most active in the early morning and around 16:00, with activity clearly decreasing at noon.

4 David’s Rock Squirrel Care Tips

The David’s Rock Squirrel is regarded by the public as one of the important pest rodents of agriculture and forestry, with a lifespan usually of 3–12 years. It likes nuts, nibbles crops in fields, and often sneaks into residences, scurrying through beams and gaps to steal corn hung under the eaves and grain dried on the roof. Besides stealing pine seeds and damaging Korean pine seeding and nursery beds, it also intrudes into farmland and steals large amounts of grain, reducing agricultural yields.