Mountain ground squirrel | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Rodentia |
Family: | Sciuridae |
Genus: | Geosciurus |
Species: | G. princeps
|
Binomial name | |
Geosciurus princeps (Thomas, 1929)
| |
Synonyms | |
Xerus princeps |
The mountain ground squirrel (Geosciurus princeps)[2] is a rodent that is native to southwestern Angola, western Namibia, and western South Africa.[3] It is also known as the Kaoko ground squirrel or the Damara ground squirrel.
It is the closest relative of the Cape ground squirrel[4] (Latin name Geosciurus inauris), which is so similar in appearance that the two are difficult to distinguish in the field.[5] Both species have long bushy black and white tails with a white stripe from the shoulder towards the rump. Geosciurus princeps is slightly larger, on average, than G. inauris, although there is considerable overlap in body size. Differences in skull morphology also distinguish the two species,[6] and the incisors are yellow to orange rather than white as in G. inauris.[6][7]
Thomas1929
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).