Cape Ground Squirrel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
Any material not supported by sources may be challenged and removed at any time. This article has been tagged since April 2007.
This article (or section) may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article, especially its section layout, and relevant internal links. (help)
This article has been tagged since April 2007.
This article is uncategorized.

Please help improve this article by adding it to one or more categories, so it may be associated with related articles (how?). Please remove this tag after categorizing, but not before.
This page has been tagged since April 2007.

[edit] Description and Distribution

Xerus inauris is found in most of the drier parts of Southern Africa from South Africa, through Botswana into Namibia.

In Namibia we find Xerus princeps in the North West and into Angola, away from the coastal areas and with a much smaller distribution area.

The two species have overlapping territories but this area in Namibia is not large. The African ground squirrels are large by comparison to European tree squirrels.

The name Cape ground squirrel is misleading as its area of distribution shows. This common name may have derived at to distinguish it from a tree squirrel found around Cape town which was imported from Europe by settlars. Fortunately this squirrel has remained in a narrow area in Cape Town and does not seem to be a negative influence on local fauna.

Both species have have long bushy black and white tails with a white stripe from the shoulder towards the rump

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../c/a/p/Cape_Ground_Squirrel_ea2c.html"