The world’s gliding mammals are an extraordinary group of animals that have the ability to glide from tree to tree with seemingly effortless grace. There are more than 60 species of gliding mammals including the flying squirrels from Europe and North America, the scaly-tailed flying squirrels from central Africa and the gliding possums of Australia and New Guinea.
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae, Pteromyini
Description: A medium-sized squirrel with a white throat that extends to grey forward of the cheek below the eye and behind the ears to form a ‘half-collar’. Its ears are covered with minute black hairs on both sides.
Its upper parts are rufousbrown darkening toward blackish on its limbs, on the upper surface of its gliding membranes, and on the underside of its tail. Its underparts are white to creamy in colour, except the tail.
Distribution: Occurs in the eastern Himalayas from Nepal through Sikkim (India), southern Tibet (Bomi), Bhutan, southern Assam (India), north-western and north-eastern Burma, northern Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Other populations are found on Hainan Island (China) and southern China. A typically mountainous species, it is found in oak (Quercus sp.) and rhododendron (Rhododendron sp.) forests in China as high as 3400 metres.
In Sichuan province, China it is found in evergreen broad-leaved forest at
Reproduction: Breeding occurs from April to
Diet: Fruits, nuts, leaves and buds.
Ecology: The species is poorly studied. Nests, lined with fine grasses, have been found in tree hollows and within balls of oak leaves and ferns. It has been seen gliding from limestone caves.
Status: Least Concern.
HB | 175–247 mm |
TL | 180–230 mm |
HF | 33–45 mm |
M | c. 236–244 g |
Hylopetes alboniger alboniger — Eastern Himalayas from Nepal (at altitudes of
Hylopetes alboniger chianfengensis — Chianfeng Mountain, Hainan Island, China.
Hylopetes alboniger orinus — Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Zhejiang Provinces in China.
Glaucomys sabrinus
Glaucomys volans
Hylopetes bartelsi
Hylopetes nigripes
Kashmir Flying Squirrel
Eoglaucomys fimbriatus
Flying Squirrel
Iomys sipora Mentawai
Basilan Flying Squirrel
Petinomys crinitus
Lord Derby’s Scaly-tailed Flying Squirrel
Anomalurus derbianus