You might have thought that there was only one species of giant squirrel. In fact, there are 44 in the tribe and the largest is the Red and White Giant Flying Squirrel (
Petaurista alborufus).
It is found in the forests of China and Taiwan and, boy, can it fly. Strictly speaking it glides, but as you can see from the video above it is extraordinarily good at that. It launches itself in to space and then seems to float effortlessly through the trees to its destination. As you can imagine they are very difficult to film!
The flight is – admittedly – awesome but what many find equally striking about the Red and White Giant Flying Squirrel are its piercing blue eyes.
This incredible species inhabits the dense montane forests and limestone cliffs of China. It is distributed widely in the country and is not in any danger of extinction. In Taiwan they inhabit the island’s hardwood and conifer forests, nesting high in tree hollows.
They have small litters of only one or two infants and feed on a variety of nuts, fruit and vegetation. They will also eat insects and larvae and have been spotted occasionally raiding bird nests for eggs when times are a little frugal.
