At least five species of squirrels can be found in different parts of Guatemala
| Partial List of Most of the Squirrel Species of Guatemala |
|---|
| Scientific Name | Local Spanish Name | English Name |
| Glaucomys volans | Southern Flying Squirrel | |
| Sciurus aureogaster | Gray Squirrel | |
| Sciurus deppei | Deppe's Squirrel | |
| Sciurus variegatoides | Variegated Squirrel | |
| Sciurus yucatanensis | Yucatan Squirrel |
Since every book on mammals has a slightly different list of squirrel species, I call this a “partial list of most” of the squirrel species in Guatemala.
Squirrels are playful and cute: But best left out in the wild (not in cages)
Around our office building squirrels are busy all day long. They harvest avocados from trees in the gardens of adjacent neighbors on two sides. Sorry, squirrels here do not eat nuts! There are no nut trees in this suburb of Guatemala.
But we have planted several species of Passiflora and the squirrels love to eat the ripe fruits. Some of these Passiflora fruits are larger than the squirrels (which are rather small).
This picture was taken on FLAAR headquarters.
Since there are plenty of happy squirrels running around the garden, we let them run free. Lots of people enjoy having squirrels as pets, in cages (like hamsters). But we prefer to have our squirrels jumping freely from tree to tree, running up and down the walls of the house and garden, and enjoying all the Passiflora fruits we grow for them.
In many cities around the world the local squirrels become semi-house focused, but so far we have not had time to try to feed them by hand. Besides, the squirrels can harvest plenty of tree fruits on their own: they don’t need to learn to eat out of our hands.
Posted late August 2015
