It is a moderately large ground squirrel with sandy-brown or dark-brown fur with a white lateral stripe and whitish underparts.

Adults live alone or in pairs in a simple burrow with a central nest, foraging, mostly on the ground, for seeds, nuts and roots, and caching excess food under stones.

They have a coat of short, bristly fur, and are pale sandy to dark brown across most of the body, with whitish, nearly hairless, underparts.

The tail has hairs much longer than those on the body, which fan out to the sides, and are multi-coloured along their length, presenting a grizzled appearance.

They inhabit open or disturbed forests and savannah country, often near cultivated land, and, at the extremes of their range, coastal scrubland and semidesert regions.

They mark their territories using scent glands on their cheeks, which they rub onto stones and tree trunks, although they do not appear to defend them from intruders.

The latter are used as escape routes, allowing the squirrel to rapidly break through to the surface; the main entrance tunnel is often also blocked with a temporary pile of dirt at night.