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Sciuridae Research in South Asia—A Short Review

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Abstract

South Asia has a remarkable diversity of squirrels and they play an important role in the ecosystem functioning of this region. An evaluation on a global scale showed that the tropics of South and Southeast Asia, whilst being the centre of high diversity are areas that have given rise to very less scientific knowledge. Thus, this study aims to understand the temporal and spatial variation in squirrel research in South Asia and to map the thematic research areas on squirrel research and understand, how much funding has the squirrel research attracted in the past few decades. Kee** the research goals in mind, a systematized search for papers following the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses” (PRISMA) framework was followed. The articles were searched in Scopus. It was found that the greatest number of studies were published between 2011–2020 showing a positive trend on a temporal scale. A total of 43 studies have been done which comprises to 76 percent of the total studies conducted are in India and India shares a huge percentage of major Sciuridae species research in South Asia. Also, majority of the research is conducted on three species of giant squirrels in South Asia.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the reviewers for their valuable comments. Also, we thank Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India for the funding.

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  1. Sai Pratik Ojha and Hiranmoy Chetia authors are considered as first authors.

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  1. Amity Institute of Forestry and Wildlife, Amity University, Noida, India

    Sai Pratik Ojha, Hiranmoy Chetia & Murali Krishna Chatakonda

  2. Department of Zoology, Gauhati University, Gawahati, Assam, India

    Kuladip Sarma

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Ojha, S.P., Chetia, H., Sarma, K. et al. Sciuridae Research in South Asia—A Short Review. Proc Zool Soc 76, 207–215 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12595-023-00481-6

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