Field identification of Hodgson’s and Bhutan Giant Flying Squirrel (Petaurista magnificus and P. nobilis)

Hodgson’s and Bhutan Giant Flying Squirrel are frequently misidentified. Even the great Squirrels of the World book wrongfully depicts a Bhutan GFS as a Hodgson’s GFS. With this short article, it will be possible to identify them if the photo quality allows it. For this I checked all available skins in the collection of Naturalis, Leiden, all photographs on Observation.org and iNaturalist.org and all available literature. Due to synonimisations, types based on colour plates that delayed publications and overall misidentifications, much confusion arose, even though the two species are easily identifiable actually.

I am not the first to figure out how the actual situation was, as Ghose & Saha (1981) already revised the taxonomy and correctly described the species. However, it seems that few people actually read this publication, so hopefully this paper, that I designed to be best read on your mobile device, will change that.

I also compiled a map of all available records that I could verify and included tips on where to find both stunningly beautiful species. The pdf includes beautiful field photos by Lennart Verheuvel, Paul Carter and Jonathan Hakim.

Field identification of Hodgson’s and Bhutan Giant Flying Squirrel (Petaurista magnificus and P. nobilis)

Post author

Daan Drukker

2 Comments

  • tomeslice

    Daan, thank you for sharing this, and for doing this to begin with! 🙂
    I feel like more papers for field identification of similar-looking species – especially of small rodents, pikas etc. would be super beneficial for science and the mammalwatching community 😃✌🏻

  • vnsankar

    Great stuff, Daan! I second the utility of these kinds of documents. I’m currently working on one for sciurids, heteromyids, and cricetids of California. Trying to collect as many photos as possible in the field now, and hoping to have it ready this winter/early next year.

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