Sun squirrel

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;
Species[1]
	Heliosciurus gambianus; Heliosciurus mutabilis; Heliosciurus punctatus; Heliosciurus rufobrachium; Heliosciurus ruwenzorii; Heliosciurus undulatus;

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.

Either the habit of basking in the sun on tree branches 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.

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

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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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

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[Thorington-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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[Thomas2019-2] 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.