10 May 2021

Flying squirrel ID help needed. Namdapha ?

Dear friends,

I request Id help for this flying squirrel which I have documented few days back at Namdapha National Park at about 300 m.

This individual has much darker face and overall body along with a shorter tail than the Red Giant Flying squirrel found there.

Is there any possibility of this being Namdapha or any other species from the Biswamoyopterus family?

Any help will be really appreciated. Many thanks in advance..

Regards,

Shantanu

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2 Comments

  • 11 May 2021
    Daan Drukker

    Exciting stuff! Do you have the paper by Saha (1981) on the original description of Namdapha FS? I don’t know if it is open access, but if it is not I could send it by e-mail. It has some colour photographs (albeit not very sharp/detailed) of the habitus. It kind of looks like your specimen indeed, but I find it very difficult to separate it from the Petaurista options (mainly P. philippensis and P. petaurista). Wish I had more experience! Perhaps you could ask the authors of this paper?: Krishna, C. M., & Kumar, A. (2014). Why the Red Giant Gliding Squirrel Petaurista petaurista is often mistaken for the Namdapha Gliding Squirrel Biswamoyopterus biswasi (Mammalia: Rodentia: Sciuridae) in Namdapha National Park, Arunachal Pradesh, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 6(8), 6138-6141.

    Their e-mail addresses are in the paper. I think it is open access, but if not I can send it as well. Good luck with the identification!

  • 11 May 2021
    shantanuprasad

    Dear Daan,

    Thank you for your input and all the details. Unfortunately I do not have access to the original paper, I am not sure if it is currently in circulation. It will be a great help if you can share that by email at shantanubiotech@gmail.com.

    I have gone through the paper you mentioned above. I will also email this picture to them as suggested by you.

    I also find it similar to Biswamoyopterus gaoligongensis, a newly discovered species from south-west china. Here is a link: https://blog.pensoft.net/2019/07/18/new-species-of-flying-squirrel-from-southwest-china-added-to-the-rarest-and-most-wanted/.

    Regards,
    Shantanu

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