A squirrel restricted to Calabria in southern Italy. A 2017 study presented morphological and genetic differences supporting its treatment as a species distinct from the Eurasian red squirrel.
The back, sides, and tail are dark brown to blackish, while the underside is white. The 2017 paper describes this colour pattern as shared by both sexes.
In the middle and higher elevations of Calabria, mixed forests dominated by Calabrian pine overlap with the squirrel's range and are described as places for feeding and tree-nest building. It is active by day, with activity varying by season.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.