Squirrels of the World

Funisciurus leucogenys 219

Gabon, western Republic of the Congo, western Democratic
Republic of the Congo, and northern Angola.

geographic variation: Two subspecies are recognized.

F. l. lemniscatus—north of Gabon’s Ogooué River. This form
has a white ventral pelage.
F. l. mayumbicus—south of Gabon’s Ogooué River. This form
has a cream-colored ventral pelage.

conservation: IUCN status—least concern. Population
trend—no information.

habitat: F. lemniscatus is rarely observed in disturbed veg-
etation, but it is abundant in lowland evergreen humid
rainforests.

natural history: Ribboned rope squirrels are diurnal
and scansorial, spending most of the daylight hours away
from their nests. Individuals leave their nests at dawn and
return by late afternoon or nightfall. The squirrels forage
primarily along the ground, and they are rarely seen in veg-
etation above 5 m. Ribboned rope squirrels possess a highly
extendable tongue that they use to access the narrow living
spaces of arthropods. This specialized feeding behavior en-
ables the animals to consume mostly termites and ants.
They are omnivorous, however, and they also feed on a
large quantity of fruits and seeds. These squirrels spend a
great deal of their time alone, although they occasionally
socialize in groups of up to four individuals. Two adult
males had home ranges of 1.0 and 1.24 ha and traveled at a
mean rate of 51 m/hour, while a female stayed within a 1.6
ha area, moving at 43 m/hour; subadults have slightly
smaller home ranges. This species maintains a structured

social hierarchy and can aggressively defend resources such

as food and space. This leads some individuals to keep their

distance; for example, a male and a female with an overlap-

ping home range of 0.5 ha remained 15–40 m apart from each

other for two days. When observed in the wild, ribboned

rope squirrels are typically giving alarm calls or foraging in

pairs or small groups, with individuals spaced 5–20 m apart.

These squirrels frequently emit vocalizations. Their low-

intensity alarm call consists of one to eight (most often three)

repeated “chucks,” and this is accompanied by a downward

tail fl ick. An animal’s high-intensity alarm call begins with

single “chucks,” followed by a more extended series of

“chucks” or “chips” that are sounded in bursts of one to

seven calls (most commonly two to three) that drop in fre-

quency between groups of calls. Ribboned rope squirrels

construct a system of leaf and den nests to which they es-

cape in times of distress. For example, fi ve individuals were

identifi ed as using 17 nests: 11 exposed leaf nests in small

trees, 3 in tree hollows or lianas, and 3 in hollow logs lying

on the ground. Leaf nests are 21 cm in diameter, with two to

three entrances. They are built of large dried leaves and

lined with fi ne plant fi ber. These nests are located anywhere

from on the ground to as high as 10 m, and they are placed

eit her in an exposed area (on saplings at branch junctions, at

the top of stumps, in hanging lianas, and against tree trunks)

or tucked inside tree hollows, where they are often smaller,

with openings that are slightly larger than the squirrel’s

body. If disturbed at night while resting in an exposed nest,

the squirrels quickly relocate to another nearby nest. Fe-

males produce an average of 1.7 embryos and have four

nipples. In Monte Mitra (Equatorial Guinea), hunters com-

monly snare ribboned rope squirrels and sell the skin and

meat in loca l ma rkets. Some wild populat ions of t his species

have been identifi ed as hosts of the monkeypox virus.

general references: Amtmann 1966; Emmons 1975, 1978,

1980; Fa and García Yuste 2001; Fenner 1994.

Funisciurus leucogenys

(Waterhouse, 1842)

Red-Cheeked Rope Squirrel

description: The red-cheeked rope squirrel can be distin-

guished by its partial or pure white belly, which is tinged

with orange in some subspecies. Its chest, chin, throat, and

inner limbs are also white. The crown of the head is red

with black highlights, and the backs of the ears are black. It

is yellow across the shoulders; the back is red, grizzled with

Funisciurus lemniscatus. Photo courtesy Julie Dewilde, Wildlife
Conservation Society.