African striped squirrels
Temporal range: Recent
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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.


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