Particolored Flying Squirrel

Hylopetes alboniger

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 1000–2800 metres. In Nepal it occurs in oak—rhododendron forest of midlands at elevations of 1500–2800 metres.

Reproduction: Breeding occurs from April to mid-June, at which time two or three young are born.

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.

Distribution: Particolored Flying Squirrel

HB	175–247 mm
TL	180–230 mm
HF	33–45 mm
M	c. 236–244 g

Subspecies:

Hylopetes alboniger alboniger — Eastern Himalayas from Nepal (at altitudes of 1500–2800 metres), through to Sikkim (India), south-eastern Tibet, Bhutan, southern Assam (India), northern Burma, northern Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and much of Vietnam.

Hylopetes alboniger chianfengensis — Chianfeng Mountain, Hainan Island, China.

Hylopetes alboniger orinus — Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Zhejiang Provinces in China.