And the bush has friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him, In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended, And at night the wonderous glory of the everlasting stars.

Banjo Paterson (1889)

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Grey-bellied Squirrel

It's a first! The first video of a Grey-bellied Squirrel (Callosciurus caniceps) on the net, and I must say I'm surprised as they are a beautiful and confiding Asian squirrel species.

The tail pattern is very interesting as the edges appear blurry, especially in the dim light of a forest. Could this be an anti-predator structure, making it harder to focus on the squirrel?









Some more info.

The Grey-bellied Squirrel is a species of rodent in the Sciuridae family. It is found in forest, plantations and gardens in Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, southern Myanmar, southern China (Yunnan) and possibly western Laos. It has been introduced in the Ryukyu Islands in Japan. As suggested by its name, its belly is usually grey, though sometimes reddish on the sides. Depending on subspecies and season, the upperparts are grey, yellowish-olive or reddish.

1 comment:

Misty DawnS said...

This is SO cool! Here, in Missouri, we have fox squirrels and gray squirrels. Where I used to live in Ohio, we had black squirrels. I miss the black squirrels, so my boss still sends me t-shirts and other little gifts with black squirrels on them. :-)
What is the bird in the background at the start of the video?