for that one specifically, try Squirrels of the World by Thorington et al (which has 22 subspecies, by the way). It has the distributions and colourations of the different subspecies, which might make things easier. The red squirrel subspecies are on pages 74-5 and I just found them available on Google book results (the viewable pages vary according to country, so hopefully you'll get them too). It's a cool book, so worth buying.
My mammal lists have loads of "unknown subspecies" because it is often really difficult or even impossible to work out precise geographical limits from the published material, especially with the amounts of opposite opinions on validity in the field.
The page for Red Squirrels is view-able for me, thanks! From that description I'm pretty sure I've seen fedjushini as well as fuscoater and leucourus which I knew I had seen. That book is on my list for 'things I want to buy' but I don't really have much money at the moment
My mammal lists have loads of "unknown subspecies" because it is often really difficult or even impossible to work out precise geographical limits from the published material, especially with the amounts of opposite opinions on validity in the field.
Which is why I'm not really too fussed about subspecies, unless it is something widely accepted and clearly delineated - like disjunct distribution or distinctive plumage/pelage. And sometimes it's hard enough just to work out the species!
Which is why I'm not really too fussed about subspecies, unless it is something widely accepted and clearly delineated - like disjunct distribution or distinctive plumage/pelage. And sometimes it's hard enough just to work out the species!
I'm not too fussed about mammal subspecies either. I like to know them but I don't try too hard to find out.
I keep a proper subspecies list for all my birds though, because splits/lumps are so frequent (and sometimes completely unexpected) that I need to know where I see everything. Even in my bird list there are a few subspecies with question marks though.
