The European ground squirrel, Spermophilus citellus, inhabits
the steppes in the western part of the genus distributional area.
The species areal is disjunctive and composes of two large areas:
a Pannonian and a Balkan one (Ruziˇ c, ´ 1978). Eight subspecies of
S. citellus have been identified on the Balkan Peninsula, primarily
on the basis of size, color, and cranial morphology (Krystufek,