Geographic Variation in the West African Scaly-Tailed Squirrel anomalurus Pelii (Schlegel and Müller, 1845) and Description of a New Subspecies (Rodentia: Anomaluridae)

Abstract

Coat colour variation of Anomalurus pelii, the largest and most striking species of scaly-tailed squirrels in Africa, was studied based on the examination of 142 skins. Within a relatively small distribution area from central Liberia to Ghana, three distinct colour morphs (dorsal surface and tail black; dorsal surface black with narrow white margins and white tail; dorsal surface partly black with broad white margins and white tail) were found. The observed variation is not clinal but changes stepwise across the Sassandra and Bandama Rivers which divide the distribution clearly into a western, central, and eastern range. This pattern is weakly paralleled by variation of skull size. Between the three sub-populations there is probably reduced gene flow and they represent relicts of a formerly wider distribution. We assign two available names to the western and eastern and suggest a new name for the central population.