Forest Giant Squirrel
Protoxerus stangeri (Waterhouse, 1842)
Also calledAfrikakjempeekorn (nob) · Esquilo‑gigante (por) · Gemeines Ölpalmenhörnchen (deu) · Grand Ecureuil De Stanger (fra) · Oliepalmeekhoorn (nld) · Scoiattolo gigante africano (ita) · Scoiattolo gigante di Stanger (ita) · Scoiattolo gigante di foresta (ita) · afrikaniso-orava (fin) · olejówka leśna (pol) · veverka nahobřichá (ces) · Écureuil géant de Stanger (fra) · Масличная белка (rus) · ウスゲアブラヤシリス (jpn)
First described in: Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., [ser. 1] vol.10 p.202 (footnote)
The forest giant squirrel (Protoxerus stangeri) or Stanger's squirrel is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae found in Angola, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and plantations.
Descriptions from checklists and floras indexed by GBIF
discussion
REMARKS Lamotte (1966) collected one specimen of this giant squirrel on the Guinean side of the mountain (MNHN-ZM-MO- 1987 - 132) and Roche (1971) mentioned the species from Seredou. It was not reported by Misonne & Verschuren (1976) from the Liberian side but Coe (1975) collected three specimens attributed to P. stangeri temmincki Anderson, 1879. Five specimens are recorded in the NMK (NMK 336, 383, 392, 451, and 490). The species was identified as bushmeat sold in Yekepa and Saniquellie markets by Bene et al. (2013). One individual was caught by a camera-trap in 2017 on the Liberian Nimba in lowland forest (Appendix 7). In the Guinean side of the Mount, 20 specimens were captured by hunters in Gbakoré, Zouguépo and Séringbara (Dufour 2006). The giant squirrel is characterized by a dark brown dorsal pelage, speckled with black and white hairs, and a relatively small tail with black rings and a brown tuft of hairs. There is no lateral stripe. The standard external measurements are provided in Table 11. The skull is large with a short nasal not domed and the post orbital notch situated in the anterior part of the CIO. In ventral view there is no P 3 and only four jugal teeth. The mo
Annotated checklist of rodents from a biodiversity hotspot, Mount Nimba (West Africa)
child_taxa
Subspecies:: Subspecies Protoxerus (Protoxerus) stangeri subsp. stangeri Waterhouse 1842 Subspecies Protoxerus (Protoxerus) stangeri subsp. bea Heller 1912 Subspecies Protoxerus (Protoxerus) stangeri subsp. centricola Thomas 1906 Subspecies Protoxerus (Protoxerus) stangeri subsp. cooperi Kingdon 1971 Subspecies Protoxerus (Protoxerus) stangeri subsp. eborivorus Du Chaillu 1860 Subspecies Protoxerus (Protoxerus) stangeri subsp. kabobo Verheyen 1960 Subspecies Protoxerus (Protoxerus) stangeri subsp. kwango Verheyen 1960 Subspecies Protoxerus (Protoxerus) stangeri subsp. loandae Thomas 1906 Subspecies Protoxerus (Protoxerus) stangeri subsp. nigeriae Thomas 1906 Subspecies Protoxerus (Protoxerus) stangeri subsp. personatus Kershaw 1923 Subspecies Protoxerus (Protoxerus) stangeri subsp. signatus Thomas 1910 Subspecies Protoxerus (Protoxerus) stangeri subsp. temminckii Anderson 1879
Order Rodentia - Family Sciuridae
distribution
Distribution: Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, W Ghana, Togo, S Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Rio Muni, Bioko (Equatorial Guinea), Gabon, E Republic of Congo, N Angola, S Central African Republic, S Sudan, Dem. Rep. Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, W Kenya, N Tanzania.
Order Rodentia - Family Sciuridae
materials_examined
Type Locality: Equatorial Guinea, Bioko. " ... brought from Fernando Po ... ".
Order Rodentia - Family Sciuridae
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
The forest giant squirrel is the largest arboreal squirrel in Africa with a head-and-body length of around 300 mm (12 in) and a bushy tail of a similar length. The head is large and rounded with powerful cheek muscles. The brownish hairs on the top of the head and on the nape are tipped with white giving a frosted appearance. The ears are small, rounded and almost hairless. The body colouring is rather variable across the animal's wide range. The fur is short and stiff; the upper parts are medium brown grizzled with buff or yellow, the individual hairs having black bases, yellow or buff shafts and black tips. The chest is white and the underparts are almost hairless showing the yellowish skin. The limbs are compact and strong. The tail is long and bushy and the black and white barring is sometimes not clearly visible. When the animal is moving around, the tail is held horizontally, but when it is stationary, the tail hangs down.
Range & habitat
The forest giant squirrel is native to tropical western and central Africa. Its range extends from Sierra Leone to western Kenya, and southwards to northern Angola and northern Tanzania. It is a lowland species with a maximum altitudinal limit of about 2,000 m (6,600 ft). It occurs in primary forest, secondary forest and fringing forest as well as plantations and agricultural land and gardens with trees. It is normally found in the upper layers of the canopy, only occasionally descending to ground level.
What it does
The forest giant squirrel is solitary and diurnal. It forages primarily for the fruits and seeds of trees and lianas; it can crack open the tough nuts of Panda oleosa, Coula edulis, Klainedoxa gabonensis, Elaeis, and Irvingia spp.. The diet also includes some other plant material and a very small proportion of insects. The squirrel has a home range of a few hectares and seems to avoid other squirrels or drive them away from a tree where it is feeding. Vocalisations include two types of alarm calls. This squirrel is preyed on by eagles and other large birds of prey. The nest is made in a tree cavity with an entrance through which the squirrel can just fit. Nesting material consists of twigs with the green leaves still attached. The squirrel emerges around dawn and returns to the nest many hours later. The reproductive behaviour of this squirrel has not been studied but it usually has litters of one or two young. The upper side of the tail has broad transverse bars of black and narrow bars of white while the underside has equal-sized longitudinal stripes in black and white. The tail is used for signalling, and when displayed upwards the signal differs from when it is displayed downwards.
Where it has been recorded
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Protoxerus stangeri in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
From the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence records (GBIF.org), with Wikipedia and the Source Library. GBIF species 2437390.