Logo: Gliding mammals of the world

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.

Beecroft’s Scaly-tailed Flying Squirrel

Beecroft’s Scaly-tailed Flying Squirrel / Anomalurops beecrofti
Anomalurops beecrofti

Order: Rodentia
Family: Anomaluridae

Description: A medium to large glider, similar to Pel’s Scaly-tailed Flying Squirrel, but with a sharper muzzle and shorter and rounder ears. Its pelage is thick and fleecy and lightly waved. The fur at the base of its tail is smooth-haired and at the end has a slight tuft. Its underparts are well haired with the gliding membrane rather more lightly haired.

Its upper parts are commonly a silverishgrey with a central stripe of golden brown down its back, while its underparts are greyish or yellowish with an orange throat and chest. It often has a white spot on the forehead but does not have a dark ‘mask’ around the eyes. Its tail, which is narrower than in other scaly-tailed species, has up to nine pairs of scales on its underside at the base. This species is also similar to Lord Derby’s Scaly-tailed Flying Squirrel but is smaller.

Distribution: Occurs in high and dry forests from Casamance in Senegal, east Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea (including Bioko Island),Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo (= Zaire) and Angola in western and central Africa.

Within this region they are found from sea level up to 2500 metres. It shows a marked preference for palm groves, and can withstand some cultivation and plantation in its habitat if palms and some big trees remain.

Reproduction: There appears to be a prolonged breeding season at the end of the wet season. The female gives birth to one young and carries it while it is small.

Diet: Fruits, especially palm dates, bark, leaves and occasional insects.

Ecology: Rests in tree holes in the upper levels of the forest or will hide between palm fronds or in dense congregations of leaves and twigs at the summits of the trees. It will also cling to the sheltered underside of a tree branch, close to the trunk, where it escapes detection by resembling a flake of loose bark. It is active during the day at noon and during the hours before sundown.

These habits may account for its presence in the mountain forests and also for its colouration, which, in life, is bright leaf-green above and vivid golden yellow below, with the sides of its head, limbs, and the edge of its gliding membrane pearl-grey. These colours fade after death and preservation to dull brindled grey-olive above and dirty yellowish-red below. Observations of live captive specimens showed that their colours also fade at night.

That this was not an illusion was confirmed by the fact that an individual killed in the daytime took three days to fade to the ‘death colouration’, whereas another killed at night altered almost immediately. Whether the intensification of the colours in the presence of sunlight is due to algae in pits in the hairs or to some refractive process, it is impossible to say. Predators include the Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), Crowned Eagle (Spizaetus coronatus), Long-tailed Hawk (Urotriochis macrourus) and pythons.

Status: Least Concern.

Beecroft’s Scaly-tailed Flying Squirrel / Anomalurops beecrofti
Beecroft’s Scaly-tailed Flying Squirrel
Anomalurops beecrofti
Distribution: Beecroft’s Scaly-tailed Flying Squirrel
HB250–390 mm
TL160–260 mm
HF37–62 mm
M450–1040 g

Other species:


Random species

North Chinese Flying Squirrel / Aeretes melanopterus

North Chinese Flying Squirrel
Aeretes melanopterus

Red Giant Flying Squirrel / Petaurista petaurista

Red Giant Flying Squirrel
Petaurista petaurista

Mindanao Flying Squirrel / Petinomys mindanensis

Mindanao Flying Squirrel
Petinomys mindanensis


Gliding Mammals of the World provides, for the first time, a synthesis of all that is known about the biology of these intriguing mammals. It includes a brief description of each species, together with a distribution map and a beautiful full-color painting.

An introduction outlines the origins and biogeography of each group of gliding mammals and examines the incredible adaptations that allow them to launch themselves and glide from tree to tree.