Red-and-white Giant Flying Squirrel

About this species

Size

Head and body 35–58cm; tail 43–61.5cm

Diet

Mainly nuts and fruits; also leaves, insects and their larvae

Habitat

Forest at 800–3,500m in mainland China

The red and white giant flying squirrel is a very large, dark rufous-red, buff and white flying squirrel. In China the upperparts are dark rufous-red with a large buff or straw-coloured patch on the lower back. Head and body length is 35–58 cm and the tail 43–61.5 cm. One animal weighed 4,290 g, by far the highest reported for any gliding mammal, though it is unclear whether that is normal for the mainland population (Wikipedia, general species account).

The account says it possibly ranges into north-eastern South Asia, but it describes the animal in mainland China and Taiwan, where it lives in forest at 800–3,500 m, so nothing specific to India can be stated. It sleeps by day in a tree hollow and forages in the trees at night, eating mainly nuts and fruits along with leaves, insects and their larvae, and glides on a parachute-like patagium (Wikipedia, general species account).

Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)