Spermophilus fulvus (Lichtenstein 1823)

[Arctomys] fulvus Lichtenstein 1823, Naturh. Abh. Eversmann's Reise: 119.

Type Locality: "near the Kuvandzhur River, east of Mugodzhary Mountains, north of Aral Sea" [Kazakhstan] (Ognev, 1963 a:29) .

Vernacular Names: Yellow Ground Squirrel.

Subspecies::

Subspecies Spermophilus fulvus subsp. fulvus Lichtenstein 1823

Subspecies Spermophilus fulvus subsp. hypoleucos Satunin 1909

Subspecies Spermophilus fulvus subsp. oxianus Thomas 1915

Distribution: Kazakhstan, from the Caspian Sea and the Volga River to Lake Balkash; south through Uzbekistan, W Tajikistan and Turkmenistan to NE Iran, and N Afghanistan; W Xinjiang (China).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Subgenus Colobotis according to Gromov et al. (1965:276), but see Hall (1981:381) who included Colobotis in subgenus Spermophilus . See also major, which may be the sister species to fulvus (Harrison et al., 2003); fulvus occurs sympatrically with major in the southern third of the latter’s range, where sporadic hybridization occurs south of Saratov (Ermakov, 1996).