Sun squirrel

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.

Sun squirrels Temporal range: Late Pleistocene to Recent
H. rufobrachium, Uganda
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Sciuridae
Tribe:	Protoxerini
Genus:	Heliosciurus Trouessart, 1880
Type species
Sciurus gambianus Ogilby, 1835[1]
Species[1]
Heliosciurus gambianus Heliosciurus mutabilis Heliosciurus punctatus Heliosciurus rufobrachium Heliosciurus ruwenzorii Heliosciurus undulatus

Either the habit of basking in the sun on tree branches^{[citation needed]} or the tail being commonly used as a sunshade^[2] gave this group its common name.

Sun squirrels have been implicated in the spread of human monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.^{[citation needed]}

There are six species in the genus:

• Gambian sun squirrel, Heliosciurus gambianus
• Mutable sun squirrel, Heliosciurus mutabilis
• Small sun squirrel, Heliosciurus punctatus
• Red-legged sun squirrel, Heliosciurus rufobrachium
• Ruwenzori sun squirrel, Heliosciurus ruwenzorii
• Zanj sun squirrel, Heliosciurus undulatus

References

1. Thorington, R.W. Jr.; Hoffmann, R.S. (2005). "Family Sciuridae". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: a taxonomic and geographic reference (3rd ed.). The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 754–818. ISBN 0-8018-8221-4. OCLC 26158608.
2. Thomas, H.H.; Best, T.L.; Agwanda, B. (September 2019). "Heliosciurus rufobrachium (Rodentia: Sciuridae)". Mammalian Species. 51 (978): 61–69. doi:10.1093/mspecies/sez010.

• Nowak, Ronald M. (1999), Walker's Mammals of the World, 6th edition, Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp 1281–1282.
• list of the squirrels in the world www.squirrels.org, archived at web.archive.org