Scaly-Tailed Squirrels: Anomaluridae

Scaly-tailed squirrels are native to the middle region of Africa, and live mainly south of the Sahara Desert in west, central, and east Africa. Countries in which they appear regularly are Sierra Leone, Kenya, Angola, Mozambique, Ghana, Liberia, Senegal, Congo, Cameroon, Gabon, the Central African Republic, and Ivory Coast.

Scaly-tailed squirrels prefer the open woodlands of east, central, and west Africa and the rainforests of west and central Africa.

Larger scaly-tailed squirrels eat bark and twigs from more than a dozen species of tree, but their favorites are miombo, velvet tamarind, ironwood, owala oil, and awoura. They occasionally also eat insects and gum (tree sap). The smaller squirrels eat almost nothing besides gum and insects.

The mammals are sometimes accused of raiding oil palms for their nuts, but in general they have very little interaction with humans. Conservationists have worked to limit or stop the harvesting of the squirrels' food trees, many of which are valuable sources of high-quality commercial lumber.

Despite logging of their food trees and a general decline in habitat quality and quantity, scaly-tailed squirrel species are not considered threatened.