Fire-footed rope squirrels identified as a natural reservoir for monkeypox virus

15:40 - 11 Feb 2026

Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH), a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), together with an interdisciplinary team of partners, have identified the fire-footed rope squirrel (Funisciurus pyrropus) as a likely natural reservoir of the monkeypox virus (MPXV). Their study was published today in Nature. The discovery was based on the detailed investigation of an mpox outbreak among wild sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) in Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire. Scientists combined ecological, behavioral, and molecular evidence to document, for the first time, the interspecies transmission of MPXV in the wild, from fire-footed rope squirrels to sooty mangabeys.