Sun squirrels (

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

''Heliosciurus''), form a taxon of squirrels under the subfamily

Xerinae The Xerinae comprise a subfamily of squirrels, many of which are highly terrestrial. It includes the tribes Marmotini (marmots, chipmunks, prairie dogs, and other Holarctic ground squirrels), Xerini (African and some Eurasian ground squirrels), ...

and the tribe

Protoxerini The Protoxerini comprise a tribe of squirrels found in Africa. The 30 species in six genera are:Thorington, R. W. and R. S. Hoffmann. 2005. Family Sciuridae. Pp 754–818 in Mammal Species of the World A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. Johns ...

. They are only found in sub-Saharan

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. Either the habit of basking in the sun on tree branches or the tail being commonly used as a sunshade gave this group its common name. Sun squirrels have been implicated in the spread of human

monkeypox Monkeypox (also called mpox by the WHO) is an infectious viral disease that can occur in humans and some other animals. Symptoms include fever, swollen lymph nodes, and a rash that forms blisters and then crusts over. The time from exposure t ...

in the

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. There are six species in the genus: * Gambian sun squirrel, '' Heliosciurus gambianus'' * Mutable sun squirrel, '' Heliosciurus mutabilis'' * Small sun squirrel, '' Heliosciurus punctatus'' * Red-legged sun squirrel, '' Heliosciurus rufobrachium'' * Ruwenzori sun squirrel, '' Heliosciurus ruwenzorii'' * Zanj sun squirrel, '' Heliosciurus undulatus''

References

*Nowak, Ronald M. (1999), ''Walker's Mammals of the World'', 6th edition,

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and

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, pp 1281–1282.
list of the squirrels in the world
''www.squirrels.org'', archived at ''web.archive.org'' Taxa named by Édouard Louis Trouessart {{Squirrel-stub