Busy on campus: activity budget, feeding habit and habitat use by the Gambian sun squirrel Heliosciurus gambianus on the University of Ghana, Legon campus

Urbanization dramatically alters the ecological landscape, posing strong and novel challenge to wild animals. Although the behavioural adaptations of wildlife to urbanization have been well documented, the activity time budget and feeding habits of tree squirrels in Afro-tropical cities have received considerably limited investigations. Here, we studied the activity budget, feeding habits and habitat use by the Gambian sun squirrel (Heliosciurus gambianus) on the University of Ghana, Legon main campus in Accra, Ghana. Data was collected from December 2021 to July 2022 using focal sampling. We found that the activity pattern of H. gambianus was bimodal, with peaks in the mornings and evenings. Their activity budget composed largely of feeding (43.8%), foraging (23.1%) and observing (12.5%). Although the squirrels’ activities were higher in the dry season, there was no significant difference between their activity budget in the dry and wet seasons. The Gambian sun squirrels consumed flowers, fruits/seeds and young leaves from 11 (six local and five exotic) tree species, but their diet composition varied seasonally. The squirrels used areas with high density or linear strip of tall trees (≥ 3.5 m) with overlapping canopies that enabled arboreal movement as they rarely used the ground. They nested in tree hollows and attic of buildings. Our study provides the first systematic data on the activity budget, feeding habits and habitat use of H. gambianus in a West African city and University campus. Our data can inform urban land-use planning and effective conservation of urban habitats and tree squirrels in Afro-tropical cities.