The Indian giant squirrel is basically a squirrel version of the orangutan. It is a huge, lonely species that inhabits tropical forests with awe-inspiring hair.
You may have recently seen a picture of a funky, stout, weirdly beautiful rodent. The Malabar giant squirrel, commonly known as the Indian giant squirrel, is colored in black, beige, orange, brown, and in hues between lilac and purple, which has attracted a lot of attention.
Through the reactions on social media, people think that just discovering a new species should be forgiven. Many linked and retweeted stories — which include some color photos of squirrels — included the subtitle, "They were found in the wild this way!" However, we know that the Indian giant squirrel has been around for some time.
Squirrel Brief Review
But first let's talk about squirrels in general. There are more than 270 known species of squirrels, which are divided into three categories: tree, ground and fly. They originated in what is now North America and are considered endemic to all continents except Australia and Antarctica.
All modern tree squirrels, including (our colorful Indian giant squirrel), is a tree squirrel whose fossil record dates back 36 million years (although it may have been long before that).
Sadius McRae, professor of biology and behavioral ecology researcher at Lee University in Tennessee, said: "The Ratufa species of the Asian giant squirrel appears to have been genetically isolated from other squirrels relatively early in the history of squirrel diversity."
According to a 2003 study by biologists at Duke University, this split occurred between 31 and 36 million years ago, when the Planet was experiencing "sudden cooling climate fluctuations and mass extinctions of other animal groups."
It is likely to have been discovered and hunted by humans thousands of years ago.
Indian giant squirrel
But spending a lot of time on the planet doesn't make these colorful squirrels less interesting.
In fact, the Indian giant squirrel "is basically a squirrel version of an orangutan," said McRae, who also published a study on the alarm sound of the eastern gray squirrel. (You can hear some of their cries in this story for Wired magazine.) "[They're] large, lonely, tropical, forest-dwelling species that eat a lot of different plant parts, some insects, and have great hair." ”
Indian giant squirrels are mainly distributed in the forests of southern, central and eastern India, and by the standards of squirrels, they are indeed huge. Adult adults can be up to 3 feet (0.9 meters) long (including tail) and weigh nearly 5 pounds (2.2 kg). In contrast, an eastern gray squirrel can be up to 20 to 22 inches (0.5 to 0.55 m) in length (with tail) and weighs about 1 pound to 1 and a half pounds (0.45 to 0.68 kg).
Indian giant squirrels have rounded ears, almost like pandas, and they have large claws and powerful climbing claws. Since they treat trees like children's climbing frames most of the time, these squirrels are highly athletic: Indian giant squirrels can jump more than 20 feet (6 meters)!
Its predators include birds of prey, snakes and leopards.
The Indian giant squirrel has a striking dark purple color that can be used to camouflage or help find a mate.
Why is it so dazzling?
Speaking of being eaten, you may wonder why the Indian giant squirrel is so colorful? Wouldn't the bright colors give them to these predators?
"Tropical squirrels, especially Asian squirrels, seem to include some very brightly colored squirrels," McRae said. "I can think of several possible explanations. One is that color patches disrupt the visual shape of the squirrel and may make it more difficult for predators to identify it as a squirrel. This can happen even with light patches on a dark background. Not exactly camouflage, but pattern destruction. "That's not my shoulder, it's a sky."
"Another hypothesis," McRae said, "at least at the species level, that different colors help squirrels recognize each other, so they can discern potential mates and competitors from other organisms." These same patterns may enable individuals to visually recognize as well, although squirrels typically communicate heavily through odors. ”
Indian giant squirrels are fairly common. Although they were listed as "vulnerable" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 1996, their numbers have risen and are now considered "least concerned" species. This is good news for this crazy rodent of this color.
Want to see one in real life? You won't find them in the wild in North America. Your best bet is to travel to India and watch from the trees high. Or find them because the newcomer "discovers" them.
Now that's cool
There is another kind of crazy squirrel in India, the Indian giant squirrel. Is it a bird? An airplane? A bat? No, it's a nocturnal squirrel that's large enough to fly — or rather, unfurle its wing membrane and glide through the forest canopy. Cool.