Flying squirrel Facts

About the flying squirrel

Flying squirrels cannot fly like birds or bats. Instead they glide from tree to tree using a patagium, a furred membrane stretching from wrist to ankle, and they steer with their limbs and tail, which also keeps them steady. Compared with other squirrels, their limb bones are longer while the bones of the hands and feet, along with the distal vertebrae, are shorter.

Molecular studies show the group shares one ancestor and arose some 18 to 20 million years ago. Most are nocturnal omnivores, with a menu of seeds, fruit, flowers, buds, fungi, tree sap, insects, spiders, gastropods, bird eggs and young birds. Babies are born naked and helpless in a nest. Their mother cares for them, and by five weeks they practice gliding, ready to leave by ten weeks.

Did you know?

• Some captive-bred southern flying squirrels are kept as small household pets.
• Paracitellus is the earliest known flying squirrel lineage, dating to the late Oligocene.
• A flying squirrel's long tail helps keep it stable in a glide.