White-tailed Antelope Squirrel

(Ammospermophilus leucurus)
A type of squirrel thats found in the United States, usually in the south and ranging as far as northern Mexico.
It eats both meat and leafy greens, as well as seeds, making it unusual in squirrels, or what is called omnivorous.
Usually it feeds on foliage or seed, but will also eat lizards, other rodents and small invertebrates.
It will also range quite broadly in search of food, using about four acres of land to live, but ranging out for about 15 acres in search of food items.

It prefers desert areas where the vegetation is sparse, such as underbrush and scrub areas.
The antelope squieewl has a gray coat of fur that has a pink type cast to it, with a white stripe on either side of its body.
They also molt two times per year, gaining a winter coat that has a second, undercoat, and a summer coat that is wiry in feeling.
The can be identified easily by the white underside of their tail.

The Antelope squirrel is about six inches long, and has a tail that adds another three inches to their bodies.
They weigh just about 4-5 ounces when full grown.

The antelope squirrel does not hibernate and is very active even when the ground becomes now covered, or when the weather is quite hot.

The white under the tail is exposed when they are frightened and it is believed that they are used as a signal to tell other antelope squirrels that danger is near.

LIke many other ground squirrels they live and store food in underground burrows..
The female of the species mates in springtime and often again in summer, giving birth to as many as ten babies, which she will nurse for about four weeks.
They very often mate two times a year.
Each female ground squirrel has ten nipples and can sustain as many as ten children easily even for all her small size.