Squirrels in captivity

I started to gain an interest on the large squirrels of Asia and I was wondering which species are kept in captivity. I know in the US we have Prevost’s squirrels and species that live in the US like grey squirrels and red squirrels. Are there any others? Not just in the US but in general.

 

Obviously Black-Tailed Prairie Dog and Groundhog are pretty common in captivity in the US. For other native squirrels I've seen Harris's Antelope-Squirrel at various collections, Southern Flying Squirrel here and there, Round-Tailed Ground Squirrel at Wildlife World Zoo, and White-Tailed Antelope-Squirrel at the California Living Museum. I have also heard of Richardson's Ground Squirrel and Mexican Rock Squirrel being around. As for Prevost's Squirrels, in the US I've seen the ssp. bangkanus, humei, and rafflesi.

In Europe, those ssp. are present as is borneoensis. Personally I have seen Plantain Squirrel, Siberian Chipmunk, Eurasian Red Squirrel, and Swinhoe's Striped Squirrel in UK zoos. There are a good few more species present, which can be seen here.

In Canada there will also be Vancouver Island Marmot at at least one or two zoos.

~Thylo

 

Whoops I completely forgot that prairie dogs are a type of ground squirrel. I would have mentioned them if I’d remember them.

 

According to ZTL, Wroclaw has a Javan black giant squirrel
(Ratufa bicolor bicolor) and Leipzig has a Sri Lankan or grizzled giant squirrel (Ratufa macroura).
Caduajac, Etten-Leur, Heckmondwike, Ruinen and Shakthy have Finlayson's squirrels (Callosciurus finlaysoni), Lindrup has grey-bellied squirrels (Callosciurus caniceps), Battersea Park, Blaavand, Borkop, Born, Gotha, Haupstrup, Jihlava, Kallenkote, Magdeburg, Pairi Daiza and Plzen have Pallas's or red-bellied squirrels (Callosciurus erythraeus), Asson, Oviedo, Wingham and Yaroslavi have plaintain or oriental squirrels (Callosciurus notatus) and Absensberg, Algoz, Amsterdam, Ardmore, Beesd, Bellingwolde, Berlin Zoo, Blackpool, Brno, Chester, Chisinau, Cotswold, Cottbus, Debrecen, Decin, Dresden, Etten-Leur, Exmoor, Fuengirola, Gampelen, Halle, Hamerton, Hof, Hoyerswerda, Kaluderica, Kecskemet, Komlo, Krakow, Lagos, Minsk, Montredon-Labessonnie, Neuwied, Newquay, Nieuwe-Tonge, Novosibirsk, Nykobing Mors, Opole, Oporto, Ovlado, Perm, Planckendael, Randers, Riga, Rostock, Rotterdam, Saarbrucken, Saint Aignan, Sanary-sur-Mer, Schotten, Shaldon, St Petersburg, Stassfurt, Teplice, Tuitjenhorn, Uberlingen-Bambergen, Wingst, Wroclaw. Zagreb and Zamosc have Prevost's squirrels (Callosciurus prevostii)
Bellingwolde and Etten-Leur have Perny's long-nosed ground squirrels (Dremomys pernyi)
Haifa, Jerusalem, Moscow, Raanana and Rischon have northern or five-striped palm squirrels (Funambulus pennantii)
Berlin Tierpark has Himalayan striped squirrels (Tamiops mcclellandii) and Askham Bryan, Asson, Aue, Augsburg, Beale, Beesd, Bellingwolde, Beverwijk, Blindham-Aying, Braunschweig, Chemnitz, Delitzsch, Dresden, Etten-Leur, Exloo, Folly Farm,
Friesoythe-Thüle, Füssen, Gettorf, Graben-Neudorf, Gronau, Hambrücken, Ingolstadt, Kallenkote, Kirkley Hall, Klingenthal, Komló, Leipzig, Linkenheim-Hochstetten, Linz, London, Magdeburg, Meißen-Siebeneichen, Milnthorpe, Neunkirchen, Neuwied, Newquay, Nieuwe-Tonge, Orvelte, Pairi Daiza, Pfullendorf, Rapperswil, Recklinghausen, Shaldon, Staßfurt, Thrigby Hall, Überlingen-Bambergen, Weißenhäuser Strand, Wingst, Wroclaw, Zlin-Lesna and Zürich have Swinhoe's striped squirrels (Tamiops swinhoei)

 

I'm pretty sure i've seen Indian giant squirrels in a few zoos in the US

 

I'd love to know where if so! I know San Diego had Vietnamese Giant Flying Squirrels at one point but they went bts years back and I don't know if they're alive still or not.

I think I've seen Red Giant Flying Squirrel listed in the pet trade in the past but not in some time.

~Thylo

 

I think I saw them at york's animal kingdom in maine

 

They only list Prevost squirrels on their site. An Indian giant squirrel would be great though if they actually have some.

 

Brevard, Chehaw and Lake Superior have southern flying squirrel. I assume Virginia Living Museum's is a southern, but it's only listed on their website as a flying squirrel.
Red River Zoo has Russian red tree squirrel.
Los Angeles and Arizona-Sonora have Harris's Antelope Squirrel.
Virginia Living Museum and Cosley have eastern chipmunk.
Calgary and Toronto Vancouver Island marmot.

That's all I have listed for AZA zoos. I didn't include Prevost's or prairie dogs since a lot of zoos keep them.

 

I have been there 3 times, the most recent last year.I have only seen Prevost's Squirrels and Black-tailed Prairie Dogs there.

 

That's so weird i remember them having a single indian giant squirrel kinda close to their butterfly garden

 

The discovery of the zoonotic Variegated Squirrel Bornavirus 1 might have an impact on the future of squirrels in zoos...
Variegated Squirrel Bornavirus 1 in Squirrels, Germany and the Netherlands

 

Rescue Eastern Chipmunks and Eastern Gray Squirrels can be found around at various places in the US.

I am surprised by the lack of Siberian Chipmunks in US zoos...

 

my favorite squirrel is usa sherman's fox squirrel which is restricted to florida.

 

I presume you've checked zootierliste. However, beware that this otherwise excellent resource contains two mistakes in this group:

Callosciurus finlaysonii ferrugineus -- the photo of an all-red squirrel looks fine, but the black-and-red looks exactly like the undescribed central Laos type decribed and illustrated in e.g. Francis, 2008 (A Guide to the Mammals of Southeast Asia). I've not visited any of the zoos listed for C. f. ferrugineus. However, I have seen several photos of captive claimed to be of this subspecies from Europe, both originating from private keepers and zoos (incl. two in the Ponderosa Rural Therapeutic Centre zoochat gallery), and they quite consistently look like the undescribed central Laos form. Not C. f. ferrugineus.

Dremomys pernyi -- another species only listed for two relatively infrequently visited zoos that I have not visited either. However, assuming the photos are from the zoos there are some identification problems. The two close-ups show Pere David's rock squirrel. The last photo, showing full-body and most of tail, can be several Asian species. It is likely a grey-bellied squirrel, but a few others look very similar and I'm not able to give a definite identification from that photo. However, Dremomys isn't one of the possibilities.

 

Only the body shot of J. de Greef will be taken in these collections, the others are from a member here who most certainly hasn't visited those collections..

The black and red squirrel comes from @devilfish , so he will be able to tell from where it came .

 

Devilfish's photo is from the Ponderosa Rural Therapeutic Centre. Another photo of the same individual, just a slightly different angel, is in the zoochat gallery (currently page 3) I linked in my previous comment.

I first saw such individuals several years ago at a private keeper. This was years before the existence of the undescribed central Laos form became widely known. I assume the first importers to Europe just tried to find the best match with the knowledge available to them. The mistake then multiplied as the offspring from the original import was passed along to other squirrel keepers.

 

Both me and @vogelcommando have visited Etten-Leur recently and I made a photo of the animal:



Is this Dremomys pernyi or not?

 

AWP, do you have a photo in profile? Most of main features for Dremomys pernyi are unfortunately not easily judged from the head-on angle:

1. Whitish to buff underparts (I guess it looks fine on your photo, but unforunately a bit difficult to judge from this angle and not diagnostic on its own).
2. Quite long, fairly pointed snout for a squirrel, as also indicated by its English name (virtually impossible to judge from a head-on photo).
3. Fairly large ears with a orangish spot behind them (ears look fairly small on your photo but difficult to judge from this angel. Impossible to check for spot behind ears from this angle).
4. Complete eye-ring, not clearly split (I don't see any eye-ring on your photo, but it might simply be light+angle).
5. No dark "shadow" on cheek (fine on your photo, but unforunately not diagnostic on its own).

So, we really need a profile shot. Here are some photos of Dremomys pernyi allowing people to see the things I described above. The species is very common in parts of its range and easy to see in the wild.

Mainland type (includes several subspecies, but they are all reasonably similar):

1. https://cdn.mercierzengphotography.com/image/huangshan/birds/squirrel-1.jpg
2. https://cdn.mercierzengphotography.com/image/huangshan/birds/squirrel-4.jpg
3. https://cdn.mercierzengphotography.com/image/huangshan/birds/squirrel-3.jpg
4. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5JU5ZFn0j...y%27s+long-nosed+squirrel+Dremomys+pernyi.JPG
5. http://www.cokesmithphototravel.com/image/51400913.jpg
6. https://b2-q.mafengwo.net/s10/M00/A...iew2/2/w/680/q/90|imageMogr2/strip/quality/90

Taiwan subspecies, which is somewhat darker and more deeply colored with less distinct spot behind ear (definitely not the one on your photo, but included for completeness and because most online photos are this subspecies):

1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Wj644pHkE...uirrel+(Dremomys+pernyi+owstoni)+DSC_7993.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qY0Yu2MOy...uirrel+(Dremomys+pernyi+owstoni)+DSC_8052.jpg
3. http://biodiversityfocused.co.za/wp...Pallass-Squirrel-Dremomys-pernyi-owstoni-.jpg
4. http://eoldata.taibif.tw/files/eold...ect_image/images/39/20120225050811_380606.jpg

(a fast search revealed that there also are quite a number of misidentified photos on the net, mostly Pallas's squirrel.)

 

Probably I took several photos, but I only saved this one as being the best one.