Cape ground squirrel
| Cape ground squirrel | |
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| Cape Ground Squirrel at Krugersdorp Game Reserve, Gauteng, South Africa | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Sciuridae |
| Genus: | Xerus |
| Subgenus: | Geosciurus |
| Species: | X. inauris |
| Binomial name | |
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Xerus inauris (Zimmerman, 1780) |
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| Cape ground squirrel range | |
The Cape ground squirrel (Xerus inauris) is found in most of the drier parts of southern Africa from South Africa, through to Botswana, and into Namibia.
The name Cape ground squirrel is somewhat misleading as it actually has a much wider area of habitation. This common name may have been arrived at to distinguish it from a tree squirrel (the Eastern Grey Squirrel) found around Cape Town, which was imported from Europe by Cecil John Rhodes.
The Cape ground squirrel has black skin with a coat is made of short stiff hairs without underfur. The fur is cinnamon on the back while the face, underbelly, sides of neck and ventral sides of limbs are white. The sides of its body each have a white stripe that stretches from the shoulders to the thighs. The eyes are fairly large and have white lines around them. The pinnae is small. The tail is flattened on the back and underside and is cover with white hair and 2 black bands at the base. The Cape ground's sexual dimorphism is subtle. Males usually weighing 8-12% more than females, with the former weighing 423–649 grams (0.933–1.431 lb) and the latter weighing 444–600 grams (0.979–1.323 lb). The Cape ground squirrel has a total length of 424–476 millimetres (16.7–18.7 in) for males and 435–446 millimetres (17.1–17.6 in) for females. The dental formula of the ground squirrel is 1.1.0.01.1.3.3. The belly and groin area of the females each have two pairs of mammary glands. The glans penis of the males are large with a prominent baculum. This species is notable for its impressively large testicles ( roughly golf ball size ) which are around 20% of the length of the head and body. Molting occurs between August and September and between March and April, once per year.
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