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Red and White Giant Flying Squirrel

Petaurista alborufus

Description:

The largest species of giant squirrel over 1m (3') from head to tail with piercing blue eyes! Check out the short video clip of it gliding through the forest. This species inhabits dense montane forest, limestone cliffs and conifer forests. They are nocturnal and nest in high tree hollows.

Habitat:

This species is found in China in the provinces of Shaanxi, Hunan (CSIS 2008), Guangxi, Sichuan, Gansu, Hubei, Guizhou, and Yunnan, and including Taiwan (Smith and Xie 2008). It occupies elevations ranging from 800-3,500 m asl, most often from 2,000-3,000 m. This species inhabits dense montane forest, limestone cliffs and conifer forests. They are nocturnal and nest in high tree hollows.

Notes:

I spotted this is Foping Reserve. The trackers knew were to find them and we hiked to a valley with tall trees that they nested in. They are a nocturnal species and in order to see them during the day, the trackers would make a bit of noise on the tree to try and get the squirrel to come out and investigate. It worked! I was lucky enough to see 3 of them and even got to see them fly. I've added my footage of them flying. They were very hard to film as I never knew when the would fly. I was lucky enough to film them flying twice during midflight. I've combined my 3 videos into one with the first one played in slow motion as well to really get a good look at how they glide.

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233 Comments (1–25)

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 2 years ago

Sorry Miss Naturaleza, Pat10, larkinpb, perriayd and maplemoth662, I missed these comments a while ago. Thanks for the kind words. @Pat10 I had the help of a guide to find them, they know where they live.

maplemoth662
maplemoth662 6 years ago

Photos No. 1, and No. 3, are beautiful photos, and very cute photos....

perriayd
perriayd 6 years ago

yeah

larkinpb
larkinpb 6 years ago

Wow great video!

Pat10
Pat10 6 years ago

Wow!! It is awesome!! It is very beautiful! It is lovely! Some people may think it is a bird, if they don´t know about science.
Cool mammal!
For Science it is a very interesting squirrel.
Form II Yellow class (generation 2017)
Saint George`s School

Pat10
Pat10 6 years ago

Beautiful! How did you discover the squirrel.
Form II Brown Class
Saint George's School

Miss Naturaleza
Miss Naturaleza 7 years ago

What a punk look in the first photo... hahaha great pictures.

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 7 years ago

Thanks Daniel and Irene!

Irene Brady
Irene Brady 8 years ago

Great video of a remarkable animal -- those colors -- and blue eyes too!!!

Daniel Hughes
Daniel Hughes 8 years ago

Amazing picture

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 8 years ago

Thanks robert and Paul.

PaulBennett
PaulBennett 9 years ago

wow, extraordinary

robertmoore8
robertmoore8 9 years ago

It's beautiful and pics are great!

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 9 years ago

Thanks ivanrey.

ivanrey969
ivanrey969 9 years ago

Amazing creature!! Thanks a lot for sharing!!

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 9 years ago

Thanks a lot Daniele, that is a high honour to have with so many other amazing spottings to choose from. Thanks Saman.

SamanAnsari
SamanAnsari 9 years ago

Amazingggg!

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 9 years ago

Still my favorite spotting on Project Noah :-)

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 9 years ago

Thanks Teresa, Zariga and Diaz, glad I blew your mind!

Diaz José Miguel
Diaz José Miguel 9 years ago

This is one awesome spotting! congrats, you blew my mind!!

Sof
Sof 9 years ago

Okay, faving this wasn't enough... This spotting is absolutely amazing! Gorgeous cute creature. Nicely done, thanks for sharing! :D

TeresaBurke
TeresaBurke 9 years ago

That thing is so cute! I want one!

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 9 years ago

Thanks again stacey.

staccyh
staccyh 9 years ago

Wow Dan, really awesome spot! Thanks for sharing the vid and the info. They have such blue eyes, amazing!

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 9 years ago

Thanks paulm.

Dan Doucette
Spotted by
Dan Doucette

Hanzhong, Shaanxi, China

Spotted on Nov 26, 2011
Submitted on Mar 24, 2012

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