Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Cape ground squirrel

Xerus inauris

Description:

This squirrel has bristly and coarse short hair that covers its body. The dorsal parts of the fur are cinnamon colored and have lighter and darker variation among individuals. The face, underbelly, sides of neck and ventral parts of limbs are white, while the skin is black. The sides of its body each have a white stripe that extends from shoulder to thigh. The eyes have white lines around them. The tail is flattened dorso-ventrally and covered with white hair and 2 black bands at the base. They are generally diurnal, do not hibernate and live in clusters of burrows averaging around 700 m2 (7,500 sq ft) with 2-100 entrances. The burrows protect the squirrels from extreme temperatures at the surface as well as predators. They eat bulbs, fruits, grasses, herbs, insects and shrubs.

Habitat:

Most of the drier parts of southern Africa from South Africa, through to Botswana, and into Namibia. They prefer to live in open sandy velds and grasslands with hard ground. They can also be found in scrub on the fringes of pans, on floodplains and in cultivated fields.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

6 Comments

Maria dB
Maria dB 12 years ago

Thank you, Lily and Christy!

ChristyHolland
ChristyHolland 12 years ago

Very cute! Great photos!

Lily Barth
Lily Barth 12 years ago

Cute pics!

Maria dB
Maria dB 12 years ago

Very true, Karen!

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

Very cute! you can certainly which is the male!

Atul
Atul 12 years ago

lovely series !

Maria dB
Spotted by
Maria dB

Oshana Region, Namibia

Spotted on Feb 18, 2011
Submitted on Feb 23, 2012

Related Spottings

African Ground Squirrel Striped Ground Squirrel African Ground squirrel Ground Squirrel

Nearby Spottings

Spotted Thick-knee (Dikkop) African Grey Hornbill African Grey Hornbill African Ground Squirrel
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team