Southern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys volans)

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Southern Flying Squirrel (Sciuridae: Glaucomys volans)

The Southern Flying Squirrel should perhaps be called the Southern Gliding Squirrel. The Flying Squirrels have a folded layer of loose skin along each side of the body between the forelegs and hindlegs. When the legs and membrane are spread, the Southern Flying Squirrel is able to glide from tree to tree. Flying Squirrels, however, do not fly in the true sense of the word. The Southern Flying Squirrel occurs throughout almost all of Eastern Deciduous Forest. The animals is rarely seen, however, because it is nocturnal, although it can sometimes be glimpsed at dusk gliding among the trees.

Identifying Features: The Southern Flying Squirrel is small (body length beween 5.5 to 5.7 inches in length). There is a loose flap of membrance along the body between the forelegs and hindwings. The dorsal (top) of the body is olive-brown and the ventral (bottom) white.

Similar Species. The Northern Flying Squirrel is a species of the Northern Boreal Forest that enters the northern, transitional parts of the Eastern Deciduous Forest. This species is very closely related to the Southern Flying Squirrel and the two are very difficult to tell apart. The Southern Flying Squirrel is a little smaller (5.5 to 5.7 inches in body length) relative to the Northern Flying Squirrel (5.5 to 6.25 inches in body length). The belly hairs of the Southern Flying Squirrel are white all the way to the base, but those of the Northern Flying Squirrel are white with a lead-gray base.

Habitat: The Southern Flying Squirrel lives in woodlots and forests of the Eastern Deciduous Forest.

Food: The Southern Flying Squirrel feeds on a variety of seeds, nuts, insects, bird eggs, and meat if they can get it.

Behavior. This species is nocturnal and is normally seen only as dusk falls. The Southern Flying Squirrel makes its nests in old tree holes or constructs them of leaves and twigs in the tops of trees. The species is gregarious in the winter and as many as 20 individuals may share a nest in the winter. The home range of a species in the summer is about 4 acres. Southern Flying Squirrels make a high pitches twittering sound.

Reproduction: The Southern Flying Squirrel has two litters per year. Gestation takes about 40 days.