About Flying Squirrels

You will be surprised to know that there are more than 43 species of these squirrels and they are categorized in 15 genera. There are many species that are not completely understood and they tend to make deep holes in the tree in order to prevent the sunlight. They don’t want to know whether its day or night outside. There is a special type of circadian clock that wakes them up at twilight.



Appearance

• They are usually of small or medium sized rodents.
• Flying squirrels are considered to be leggy animals due to their slender body and busy tail.
• They have a long tail and this tail give them a longer appearance.
• They have the ability to stretch their neck to the end of the tail.
• People find them cute because of their dense soft fur.
• You can see them in different colors ranging from black, brown, bright yellow or vivid orange.
Life Cycle Flying squirrel’s breeding season starts from March and it lasts till May. The female gives birth to the new squirrels that range from two to five after 40 days. Their nest can either be shredded bark, abandoned woodpecker hole, moss, clump of twigs or abandoned bird nest. The female is responsible for looking over the new-born and these newbies learn to fly when they are 2 months old.

Habitat


• They are arboreal thus they make home in forest or wooded regions. You can mostly find them in the northern boreal forest, rain forest, tropical and the deciduous forest.
• You can also find some of the species living in plantations and parkland.
• Both wooly flying squirrel and complex toothed flying squirrel lives at high altitude and rocky cliffs.
• You would rarely find any of these amazing squirrels on the ground.
• The make sure that their nest in deep in the crevice or the tree. Sometimes they make their holes and sometimes they tend to occupy the holes created by other birds or animals.
Diet


• They mostly eat plant matter or small animals. Most of them are herbivorous but some of them are famous for consuming fruits and young shoots.
• The flying squirrels in the temperate region tend to eat fungi, animal matter, seeds and some fruits.
• The species living in tropical region feed on small vertebrates, insects and spiders.
• The montane wooly flying squirrels eat conifer needles, mosses on rocks and lichens.
• There are certain species that show variation in their diet, they tend to uses any food resources that are available to them.
Behavior


• They are different social systems because they are highly nocturnal.
• The giant flying squirrels live in pairs.
• They have light proof nests and they spend most of their time in them. They tend to leave their nests only when it is dark.
• They have a very different gliding ability and they can change direction whenever they want to.
• They can glide up to 1,475 ft.

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