Siang giant squirrel
| Siang giant squirrel | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Petaurista siangensis | ||||||||||||
| Choudhury , 2013 |
The Siang giant sliding squirrel ( Petaurista siangensis ) is a sliding squirrel from the genus of the giant sliding squirrel ( Petaurista ). It was described in 2013 by the Indian zoologist and conservationist Anwaruddin Choudhury from the Upper Siang district in the northern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and is probably only found in this region.
features
The Siang giant gliding squirrel reaches a head-trunk length of about 57.5 centimeters and a tail length of about 56 centimeters, whereby only the type specimen is known. 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 red-brown. The belly side is reddish sand-colored with some grayish hairs in the rear area near the base of the tail. The upper side of the sliding skin is lighter brown and less reddish than the back, the underside is light reddish brown. The head and sides of the neck are orange to reddish brown, below the ears there are white tufts of hair with black hair tips. The front third of the tail is dark brown in color and becomes increasingly darker towards the end. The feet are black.
distribution
The Siang giant sliding squirrel is only known from the Upper Siang district in the northern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh , where it was found near the town of Milang .
Way of life
Very little information is available about the specific way of life of the Siang giant sliding squirrel. The habitat is in the range of temperate to subtropical deciduous and coniferous forests at medium altitudes. 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 Siang giant sliding squirrel comes from the Indian zoologist and conservationist Anwaruddin Choudhury in 2013. Like several other species newly described by Choudhury in 2009, it is treated as an independent species in the 2016 Handbook of the Mammals of the World .
No subspecies are distinguished within the species.
Existence, endangerment and protection
The Siang Giant Slithering Squirrel has not yet been recorded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). Information on the status of the animals is not available.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f g h J.L. Koprowski, EA Goldstein, KR Bennett, C. Pereira Mendes: Mebo 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.
literature
- JL Koprowski, EA Goldstein, KR Bennett, C. Pereira Mendes: Mebo 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.