African ground squirrels Fossil range: Early Pliocene to Recent
Cape Ground Squirrel (Xerus inauris)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Sciuridae
Subfamily:	Xerinae
Tribe:	Xerini
Genus:	Xerus Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833
Species
Xerus erythropus Xerus inauris Xerus princeps Xerus rutilus

African ground squirrels (genus Xerus) form a taxon of squirrels under the subfamily Xerinae. They are only found in Africa. There is another African ground squirrel of the genus Atlantoxerus, the Atlantoxerus getulus present in southwestern Morocco and northern Western Sahara. It is invasive in The Canary Islands since an introduction in 1971.

There are four species of African ground squirrels divided into three subgenera:

• Genus Xerus
  • Subgenus Euxerus
    • Striped Ground Squirrel, Xerus erythropus (southwestern Morocco, southern Mauritania and Senegal)
  • Subgenus Geosciurus
    • Cape Ground Squirrel, Xerus inauris (also: South African Ground Squirrel) (Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa)
    • Damara Ground Squirrel, Xerus princeps (southwestern Angola, Namibia)
  • Subgenus Xerus
    • Unstriped Ground Squirrel, Xerus rutilus (northeastern Sudan to northeastern Tanzania)

The squirrels live in open woodlands, grasslands, or rocky country. They are diurnal and terrestrial, living in burrows. Their diet is roots, seeds, fruits, pods, grains, insects, small vertebrates and bird eggs. They live in colonies similar to North American prairie dogs, and have similar behavior. Kept as pets, they run free as house cats do, otherwise farmers consider them pests.

An Unstriped Ground Squirrel (Xerus rutilus)

[edit] References

Wikispecies has information related to: Xerus

• Nowak, Ronald M. 1991. pp. 577-8 Walker's Mammals of the World Fifth Edition, vol. I. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
• Thorington, R. W. Jr. and R. S. Hoffman. 2005. Family Sciuridae. Pp. 754-818 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

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