| Sun squirrels Fossil range: Late Pleistocene to Recent |
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Sun squirrels (genus Heliosciurus), form a taxon of squirrels under the subfamily Xerinae and the tribe Protoxerini. They are only found in sub-Saharan Africa.
The habit of basking in the sun on tree branches probably gave this group its common name.
Sun squirrels have been implicated in the spread of human monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
There are 6 species in the genus:
- Heliosciurus ruwenzorii
- Heliosciurus gambianus
- Heliosciurus rufobrachium
- Heliosciurus mutabilis
- Heliosciurus undulatus
- Heliosciurus punctatus
References
- Nowak, Ronald M. (1999), Walker's Mammals of the World, 6th edition, Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp 1281-1282.
- http://www.squirrels.org/names.html
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