African striped squirrels Temporal range:
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Lady Burton's rope squirrel (Funisciurus isabella) | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Rodentia |
Family: | Sciuridae |
Tribe: | Protoxerini |
Genus: | Funisciurus Trouessart, 1880 |
Type species | |
Sciurus isabella | |
Species | |
African striped squirrels (genus Funisciurus), or rope squirrels, form a taxon of squirrels under the subfamily Xerinae and the tribe Protoxerini.[1] They are only found in western and central Africa.
There are ten species in the genus:
- Thomas's rope squirrel (Funisciurus anerythrus)
- Lunda rope squirrel (Funisciurus bayonii)
- Carruther's mountain squirrel (Funisciurus carruthersi)
- Congo rope squirrel (Funisciurus congicus)
- Du Chaillu's rope squirrel (Funisciurus duchaillui)
- Lady Burton's rope squirrel (Funisciurus isabella)
- Ribboned rope squirrel (Funisciurus lemniscatus)
- Red-cheeked rope squirrel (Funisciurus leucogenys)
- Fire-footed rope squirrel (Funisciurus pyrropus)
- Kintampo rope squirrel (Funisciurus substriatus)
Zoonoses
[edit]African striped squirrels have been implicated in the spread of human monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[citation needed] African striped squirrels were found to be a source of monkeypox in a 2003 Midwestern monkeypox outbreak.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Congo_rope_squirrel_%28Funisciurus_congicus%29.jpg/220px-Congo_rope_squirrel_%28Funisciurus_congicus%29.jpg)
References
[edit]- ^ Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M., eds. (2005). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
- Nowak, Ronald M. (1999). Walker's Mammals of the World (6th ed.). Baltimore & London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 1277–1279.
- "Complete list of squirrels by common name and species name". squirrels.org. 1993. Archived from the original on 6 December 2013.