Preliminary Inventory of Squirrels (Sciuridae, Rodentia) of Kisangani Region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Amongst small mammals, rodents are the largest order in terms of both species and population numbers. They have a high rate of reproduction, are cosmopolitan and have the ability to adapt to a wide variety of habitats. Several studies were carried out on myomorphic rodents in the Kisangani ecoregion, while those on sciuromorphic rodents are very scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the composition of the sciuromorph rodent population in the Kisangani ecoregion. This investigation was conducted in five stations of Kisangani and the sampling was performed between April 2014 and  December  2016. The  external  morphometry  method  was  used  for  species identification  according  to  Kingdon  and Schouteden. Using traditional traps, the trapping was done randomly and 75 specimens of squirrels were captured knowing that 75 traps were installed in each station. In total, the capture success was of 27750 night traps with a weak yield of 0.27%. The findings revealed that the highest rate of species was recorded in the Masako station with a capture success of 1.89% while the lowest in the Mombongo station with a capture success of 0.38%. The 75 specimens of squirrels captured belong to 4 genera and 7 species Masako and Yasikia stations presented a high specific richness (SR = 4) than other stations. Funisciurus anerythrus, Heliosciurus rufobrachium, Paraxerus boehmi are constant (C> 50%) and Funisciurus pyrropus, Protoxerus stangeri, Funisciurus bayonii, Funisciurus congicus are accessory taxa (25% <C <50%). Yasikia and Masako are more diversified than other sites, with H' = 1.182 and H' = 1.092, respectively. The current study presents the findings of a preliminary inventory of Sciuirdae from Kisangani ecoregion. Further studies on Squirrels are required in order to establish similarities and dissimilarities between different populations of Squirrels living in other regions through inventories and molecular assays to confirm morphological confusing species such as F. bayonii and F. congicus.

Auteurs: Pascal Baelo, Justin Asimonyio, Nicaise Amundala, Dudu Akaibe, Sylvestre Gambalemoke, Erik Verheyen, Anne Laudisoit, Gédéon Bongo, Koto-te-Nyiwa Ngbolua