Spermophilus fulvus (Lichtenstein 1823)

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Sciuridae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 754-818 : 807

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).