Red bush squirrel
species of mammal
The red bush squirrel or red-bellied coast squirrel (Paraxerus palliatus) is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae, which is found in bush and forest along the eastern seaboard of Africa. It is closely related to P. lucifer, P. vexillarius and P. (p.) vincenti.
Range and habitat
It is native to Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.
Races
The southernmost subspecies, P. p. ornatus, is endemic to oNgoye Forest in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. P. p. swynnertoni is endemic to Chirinda Forest in eastern Zimbabwe, and P. (p.) vincenti at Mount Namuli is sometimes deemed a full species. The species is smaller (and weighs less) with more rufous pelage in dry forest, and larger and darker in moist forest.
The public source identifies “Red bush squirrel” as species of mammal. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around bush, squirrel and species.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 16, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1762179. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Red bush squirrel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.