From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Funisciurus)

African striped squirrels
Temporal range: Recent
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
N
Lady Burton's rope squirrel (Funisciurus isabella)
Scientific classification Edit this 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:

Zoonoses

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.

Congo rope squirrel photographed in Damaraland, Namibia.

References

  1. ^ 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.