Mechuka giant sliding squirrel
| Mechuka giant sliding squirrel | ||||||||||||
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| Petaurista mechukaensis | ||||||||||||
| Choudhury , 2009 |
The Mechuka giant sliding squirrel ( Petaurista mechukaensis ) is a sliding squirrel from the genus of the giant sliding squirrel ( Petaurista ). It was described in 2009 by the Indian zoologist and conservationist Anwaruddin Choudhury from Mechuka in the West Siang district in the northern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and is probably only found in this region.
features
The Mechuka giant sliding squirrel reaches a head-trunk length of 46 to 53 centimeters and a tail length of 52 to 77 centimeters. The species is therefore comparatively large within the genus. Like all giant flying squirrels, it has a large and hairy flight membrane that connects the wrists and ankles and is enlarged by a fold of skin between the hind legs and the base of the tail. The flight membrane is muscular and reinforced at the edge, it can be tensed and relaxed accordingly in order to control the direction of gliding.
The back of the animals is dark chestnut brown. The individual back hairs have a gray base and a dark brown to black tip. On the side of the arm skin (patagium) there are also chestnut brown spots, which, however, leave out the outer edge of the skin starting on the hands and merge into the darker areas. The head is the same color as the back and the hair forms a vortex on the center of the head. The ventral side with the ventral part of the sliding skin are orange to sand-colored, the throat is whitish and on the underside of the base of the tail the coat color is grayish-white. The tail is dark brown to black in color, with the front area often being rather dark gray. The feet are black.
distribution
The Mechuka giant sliding squirrel is only known from the West Siang district in the northern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh . It is not known whether the animals are also found in the neighboring areas of Tibet .
Way of life
Very little information is available about the specific way of life of the giant mechuka squirrel. The habitat is in the area of temperate deciduous and coniferous forests at altitudes of 1800 to 2000 meters. The animals probably have a vegetarian diet like other giant sliding squirrels, but no specific information is available. Like other giant gliding squirrels, the animals are nocturnal and strictly arboreal.
Systematics
The first scientific description of the Mechuka giant sliding squirrel comes from the Indian zoologist and conservationist Anwaruddin Choudhury in 2009. Like several other species newly described by Choudhury, it is in the Handbook of the Mammals of the World from 2016 and by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources treated as a separate species.
No subspecies are distinguished within the species.
Existence, endangerment and protection
The Mechuka giant sliding squirrel is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) as data deficient due to the lack of knowledge about the way of life and is therefore not assigned to a hazard category. The status of the species' population is largely unknown.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f g J.L. Koprowski, EA Goldstein, KR Bennett, C. Pereira Mendes: Mechuka Giant Flying Squirrel Petaurista mechukaensis. In: Don E. Wilson, TE Lacher, Jr., Russell A. Mittermeier (Eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World: Lagomorphs and Rodents 1. (HMW, Volume 6) Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2016, ISBN 978- 84-941892-3-4 , p. 772.
- ↑ a b Petaurista mechukaensis in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2019. Posted by: P. Engelbrektsson, R. Kennerley, 2013. Accessed on November 3 of 2019.
literature
- JL Koprowski, EA Goldstein, KR Bennett, C. Pereira Mendes: Mechuka Giant Flying Squirrel Petaurista mechukaensis. In: Don E. Wilson, TE Lacher, Jr., Russell A. Mittermeier (Eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World: Lagomorphs and Rodents 1. (HMW, Volume 6) Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2016, ISBN 978- 84-941892-3-4 , p. 772.