Common flying squirrel - description, habitat, lifestyle

The flying squirrel is a tiny rodent. It belongs to the squirrel family and is the only representative of the flying squirrel family, which is able to inhabit the climatic conditions of Russia. This article will allow you to learn about the habits of flying squirrels, as well as tell you various interesting facts about these unusual animals.

general description

The flying squirrel is a small animal with a body length of up to 17 cm and an average weight of 125 g. Its tail is quite long compared to the trunk and is 12 cm. The leathery fold located along the trunk serves for planning and jumping. Covered with fine hair, it connects the front and hind limbs and straightens when the squirrel makes a jump. This membrane is used as a simplified version of the parachute. A flying squirrel flight can be 50 meters in a parabolic curve.

A small crescent bone, supporting this fold, departs from the flying squirrel’s wrist. The surface of the tail is covered with thick fur. The head of a flying squirrel is more rounded than the head of an ordinary squirrel, and the ears do not have tassels. Shiny black eyes are surrounded by dark fur. There are 22 teeth.

The large size and bulge of the eyes allows the squirrel to lead a nocturnal lifestyle. Soft thin coat becomes thick and dense for winter time. The color of the skin on the back is silver, and on the abdomen it is gray with a yellow tint. The gray tail has a black border. Its primary color is lighter than the color of the rest of the body. The tail has small combs of hair to the sides of the center.

With the change of season, the color of the flying squirrel fur also changes, becoming lighter in winter. Twice a year, animals molt. Autumn molt is starting from the head and stopping at the tip of the tail. Spring molting occurs exactly the opposite, starting from the tail and ending at the crown.

The elongated bones of the limbs, especially the lower leg and forearm, are needed by the squirrel to move between the trees. Its paws are quite developed and very tenacious, with the hind legs noticeably longer than the front. There are 4 fingers on the forelimbs, and 5 on the hind limbs. In the sitting position, the animal throws its tail onto its back.

Territorial distribution

From the inside, such a nest has a spherical shape in winter, and in summer the litter layer is significantly reduced. Outside, the hollow is littered and covered with shreds of wool. In the western part of Russia, a flying squirrel tries to settle near a marshy area where alder grows. The animal also prefers lakes and rivers, where there are old hollow trees.

Food

The main occupation of flying squirrels is the search for food. Mostly its subsistence consists of various plants and tree buds. Earrings of birch and alder are a favorite delicacy of this animal. She even makes stocks of them for the winter, hiding earrings inside her nest. In summer, flying squirrels include mushrooms and berries, as well as young shoots.

There is an assumption that flying squirrels are able to eat small birds and chicks and eggs. But the main factor affecting the diet of the animal is the distribution area. In the north and west of Russia, flying squirrels are content with only larch stocks in the winter.

Lifestyle

Flying squirrel leads an evening lifestyle. But lactating females and young animals like to spend time outside in the light of day. The animal retains activity throughout the year, not being able to hibernate. Most of the time, flying squirrels spend on tree branches and reluctantly go down.

They are difficult to notice with the naked eye because of the color, which helps them to be invisible against the background of trunks and leaves. But late in the evening, the squirrels begin the peak of life, and then you can hear their voice, similar to a low chirping and clatter. These flying sounds are made during games, as well as if the animal is excited or scared.

It is common for flying squirrels to live in the same place. They rarely change the habitat to which they are attached, and can live for several years in a row in the same hollow. For the flying squirrel who has changed her usual place, not only the hollow, but also birdhouses, empty hives, bird nests can serve as a new home.

The radius by which the animals move away from their home in search of food is not particularly large - 50-100 meters. They have established feeding routes. Often, one such route provides food for more than one generation of flying squirrels.

During winter frosts, the activity of animals decreases. Although the flying squirrel does not hibernate, it spends most of the day in the hollow, eating the previously prepared supplies. Siberian flying squirrel has the ability to sleep for several days in a row, fleeing from the cold. The usual flying squirrel wakefulness time in summer is 8 hours. In spring, this indicator increases to 11 hours due to rutting and mating.

Social Features and Reproduction

Flying squirrels, as a rule, live in nests together. They do not change their pair throughout their lives and, as a rule, do not enter into conflicts. Flying squirrels do not show aggression towards each other, but a nursing female can show character, protecting her cubs.

The breeding of squirrels has been little studied. During the year, the female has only one birth, and the number of litter is 2-4 cubs. The duration of pregnancy is 4-5 weeks. The first brood is born in April or May. The time for the second is the end of June-July. The care of the cubs is provided exclusively by the females; they also teach them the routes to accessible sources of food.

Flying squirrels that have just been born have a size of up to 5 cm and a weight of up to 7 g. The tail length of newborns does not exceed 1.4 cm.

In the first days of their lives, cubs are blind and naked, they gain vision on the 15th day. Young growth leaves the nest for the first time a month and a half after birth. 2-3 days after this event, the young flying squirrels make their first jumps, and on the 50th day - the first planning. From this moment they become completely independent and begin to live separately from their parents.

But, if the time of growing up was in the period of the coming frosts, the young offspring will stay with their parents in the winter, often remaining to spend the night in the same hollow.

The lifespan of squirrels in captivity can reach 13 years, and in natural habitats, animals rarely live longer than 5 years. Their main enemies are large birds of prey. Flying squirrels also stay away from martens and sables.

Human interaction

Despite the beauty of its skin, flying squirrels are not used in the fur industry, since the product from it will soon lose strength and will peel off. A squirrel cannot be kept at home, since they need to make jumps, and the limited space of housing does not allow her to lead a familiar lifestyle, because the animal soon dies.

But nothing prevents their breeding in zoos. This requires spacious enclosures. To maintain reproductive activity, flying squirrels require seasonal temperature differences.Therefore, offspring are expected only from animals contained in street enclosures.

Typically, flying squirrels do not show aggression towards a person and tend to remain unnoticed by them. However, there are cases when females attacked people who disturbed offspring.

Sometimes flying squirrels settle near human housing. In winter, they come to feed on grain.

Number

The number of flying squirrels is everywhere decreasing, and this sad trend continues. Hunting for them is limited. Flying squirrel is listed in the Red Book of Belarus, belongs to the third category of protection. This means that for the survival of the species, special measures must be taken.

Interesting Facts

1. When a squirrel finds a nut, it breaks it to get a kernel. A flying squirrel drills a hole in the shell for this purpose.
2. When planning the body of the animal forms a trapezoidal silhouette. The tail and hind limbs are pressed against each other, the front legs are widely spaced. Changing the tension of the membranes allows the squirrel to make pilot maneuvers and rotate the body 90 degrees. The animals brake with the help of the tail. To make a landing, a flying squirrel lands on a tree trunk with all four limbs and moves to its opposite side. Thanks to this action, it will be protected from large birds of prey.
3. Traces of flying squirrels are almost impossible to make out on the ground, since flying squirrels very rarely descend. Traces left in rare cases differ little from squirrel. Even a specialist will not always see the difference.
4. Before the jump, the flying squirrel turns into a small lump and then, resting its limbs on a tree, sharply straightens the body and directs its legs forward. During the flight, the body area is doubled due to straightened skin folds.
5. During planning and jumping, flying squirrels do not make noise.
6. There is a way to detect the presence of flying squirrels - small heaps of orange droppings, similar to ant egglings.
7. Flying squirrels are very clean animals. They devote a lot of time, licking their fur to a shine. Particular attention is paid to the legs and tail.
8. The first fossils of flying squirrels belong to the geological era of the Miocene (23 million-5 million years ago).
9. Flying squirrels are extremely cautious animals. But this quality is lost by them during the rut and the search for a partner. During this period they make many sounds and fearlessly appear in the eyes of others.

Video: common flying squirrel (Pteromys volans)