INDIAN GIANT SQUIRREL (GIANT & CUTE )

 Squirrels are nimble, bushy-tailed rodents found all over the world. They belong to the Sciuridae family. The word squirrel, notoriously difficult to pronounce for non-native English speakers, is ultimately Greek in origin: it comes from skiouros, from skia, meaning "shadow," and oura, meaning "tail".

  There are more than 260 species of squirrels, according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), and they are categorized into three types:

v Tree squirrels,

v Ground squirrels

v Flying squirrels

These three categories are further broken down into many squirrel types, such as Albino, Mountain Tree, Antelope, Spotted, Grey, American Red, Douglas, Fox, Pygmy, Northern Flying, Southern, Arizona Gray, Idaho, Arctic Ground, Albert’s, Franklin, Richardson, Rock, White and Black squirrel.

The largest squirrels in the world is The black giant squirrel (Ratufa bicolour) is one of the largest species of squirrel in the world. Not only is its head-to-body length a whopping 35-50cm, but its tail is another 50-60cm on top of that. That’s a very long animal! These things are so big, they can weigh more than 1.5kg.

Smallest squirrels in the world is aptly named African pygmy squirrel—only five inches long from nose to tail. Its smaller than the iphone SE 1^st  generation.

INDIAN GIANT SQUIRREL(Ratufa indica):

               Its otherwise called Malabar giant squirrels, These squirrels are called by local names as Vishal Gilahari in Hindi, Malai-anil in Tamil, Kendalilu in Kannada, Malayannan in Malayalam, and Shekru in Maharashtra, where it is also the state animal.

                It is the largest squirrel in India ,Indian Giant squirrels male and female vary in size from each other. Males are around 75 cm in length from head to tail (Head to body – 34 cm and Tail – 41cm approx) whereas females are larger being 78 cm in length from head to tail (Head to body -36 cm and Tail length – 42 cm approx)

 The four subspecies of Indian or Malabar Giant Squirrel native to India which spread across the central and southern states.

Ø   Ratufa indica indica – North & central western ghats (Best seen Nilgiris, Tamil nadu) Their back is maroon with light, pale coloured tail and face.

Ø  Ratufa indica maxima – Southern western ghats (Best seen Kerala) Is a larger version of R.i.centralis exhibiting dark tail, shoulder and rump; but found further down south from Palakkad gap.

Ø  Ratufa indica dealbata – Southern Gujarat (Best seen – Nowhere, recent reports) And the rarest of all Ratufa indica dealbata is pale brown as compared to its counterparts and has a creamish or whitish tail, hardly sighted now in Gujarat

Ø  Ratufa indica centralis – Eastern & central India (Best seen Satpura, Madhya pradesh) Found in Satpura and Eastern ghats Ratufa Indica indica is similar to R.i.indica but smaller in size and doesn’t possess a pale tail rather a darker tail and sometimes black rump.

FOODS:

        As omnivorous animals, these squirrels consume a wide variety of food, including fruits, flowers, nuts, bark, eggs of birds, and insects.

MATING :

               The male squirrel is called “buck”. The female is called “doe”. The young ones called “pup, kit & kitten” .the male & female mate once in a year.  The pregnancy duration 28-35 days. the  female can deliver   2 or 3 young ones at the same time. 

NEST:

        The Indian giant squirrels  build 4 to 5 nests. Its located on the top of the tree branches. It is use for nursing the young ones.

LIFE SPAN:

       The average lifespan of Indian giant squirrel is 20 years.

     Now a days peoples are chooseing  this as a pet animals. but its illegal. In many parts of India, people still keep wild animals captive in their homes as pets. One  photographer found this captive Malabar Giant Squirrel (Ratufa indica) in a plantation owner's house near Pala, Kottayyam, Kerala. The forest department was alerted and hopefully the squirrel is now free.

 CLASSIFICATION:

v Kingdom                     :              Animalia

v Phylum                         :              Chordata

v Class                              :              Mammalia

v Order                            :              Rodentia

v Family                          :              Sciuridae

v Genus                            :              Ratufa

v Species                         :              Ratufa Indica

 

 

 

 

 

    
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