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

Gambian sun squirrel

Heliosciurus gambianus multicolor

Description:

Dark brown-grey animal with cream colored underparts (chest, neck and belly); with a long barred tail. Approx 22 to 25 length for the body, and the same, if not a bit more, for the tail.

Habitat:

This subspecies is found mainly in eastern Africa, from north-east Congo DR, up to forested regions of Ethiopia and Eritrea. This one was seen in forested area between the town of Awassa, and lake Awassa. The forest is swampy and very rich in wildlife, in particular birds as it is one of stops on the main migratory routes.

Notes:

This subspecies is currently treated as separate species, with three subspecies, by some authors; and it would be named "The Cepape" - it can also be found under the scientific synonyms H. multicolor or Sciurus multicolor. It was finally identified thanks to this photo, https://www.flickr.com/photos/timmelling....

1 Species ID Suggestions

Machi
Machi 8 years ago
Gambian Sun Squirrel
Heliosciurus gambianus Gambian sun squirrel


Sign in to suggest organism ID

3 Comments

Zlatan Celebic
Zlatan Celebic 8 years ago

Thanks Machi and Injica for your comments and ID suggestion. Indeed it looks like the subspecies of Gambian.

Machi
Machi 8 years ago

Not 100% sure about that ID, but it looks just like this photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/timmelling...

injica
injica 8 years ago

1st I thought it could be a dassie rat (Petromuridae) but the habitat definitely does not fit- they like arid locations, and its tail is too thick anyway. This is a mystery indeed, I also don't think is any Herpestidae...it has to be a rodent but I don't know any that looks like this one.

Zlatan Celebic
Spotted by
Zlatan Celebic

ሀዋሳ / Hawassa, Southern Nations, Ethiopia

Spotted on May 15, 2001
Submitted on May 30, 2015

Related Spottings

Gambian Sun Squirrel Gambian sun squirrel Mutable sun squirrel Mutable Sun Squirrel

Nearby Spottings

Blue-headed coucal Thick-billed Raven Blue-breasted Bee-eater Abyssinian Lovebird
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team