Mishmi giant sliding squirrel
| Mishmi giant sliding squirrel | ||||||||||||
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| Petaurista mishmiensis | ||||||||||||
| Choudhury , 2009 |
The Mishmi giant sliding squirrel ( Petaurista mishmiensis ) 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 the Dibang Valley district in the northern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and is probably only found in this region.
features
The Mishmi giant sliding squirrel reaches a head-body length of 40.5 to 59 centimeters and a tail length of 57 to 60 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 animals are dark to blackish chestnut brown on the back, the central area is almost black and the color on the sides of the body and the front and rear back is lighter. The sliding skin and the head are also dark maroon. The ventral side with the ventral part of the sliding skin are orange-brown to gray or sand-colored, on the underside of the tail base the coat color is grayish-white. The tail is dark brown to black in color, with the front area being maroon and the color becoming increasingly black towards the end. The feet are black.
distribution
The Mishmi giant sliding squirrel is only known from the Dibang Valley district in the northern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh , where it was caught northwest of the district capital Anini in the Mishmi Mountains. 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 Mishmi giant sliding squirrel. The habitat is in the range of temperate to subtropical deciduous and coniferous forests at altitudes of 600 to 1600 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 Mishmi 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 Mishmi giant sliding squirrel is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) as “near threatened” despite the lack of knowledge about the way of life. 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: Mishmi Giant Flying Squirrel Petaurista mishmiensis. 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 mishmiensis 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: Mishmi Giant Flying Squirrel Petaurista mishmiensis. 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.