The flying squirrel was lucky: the delicate, chinchilla-like fur with which it is covered is too fragile to give valuable skin and make its owner the object of fishing. Therefore, flying squirrels are still widespread both in Europe and in Asia.
The distribution area of flying squirrel is a forest zone. In Siberia, the southern border of the range is much lower than in the European part of the country, and coincides with the border of the forest-steppe zone. In the north, the distribution of flying squirrels is limited to the taiga zone. They can be found everywhere, but flying squirrels prefer to settle in forests where deciduous trees prevail - alder and birch. Birch and alder earrings play an important role in the diet, their flying squirrels even procure for the winter.
According to scientific classification, the flying squirrel subfamily is part of the squirrel family, and that, in turn, is part of the rodent squad. The flying squirrel subfamily includes fifteen genera. The largest representatives are the Taguans living in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. Their body length is up to sixty centimeters. They were less fortunate than the Russian flying. True, their skin also has no industrial value, but they have a different, gastronomic value. Taguan meat is eaten by locals.
Our flying squirrels are significantly inferior to them in size. The length of the body without a tail is no more than twenty-two centimeters. Flying squirrel differs from its more famous “ordinary” counterpart by the presence of leather membranes on the sides of the body: between the right front and right hind legs, and on the opposite side.
When danger occurs, the protein makes jumps, which, due to the presence of membranes, have an incredible length of up to sixty meters. It is rather not even a jump, but a planning flight.
Due to this feature, flying squirrel rarely descends to the ground, and there is no need for it: she has a house on a tree, moving from tree to tree in the forest at such a jumping distance is as simple as that. He also finds food on the tree. What does flying squirrel eat?
She prefers buds of trees - both deciduous and conifers, but still prefers alder and birch. In addition, the flying squirrel menu consists of birch bark, maple and aspen, as well as trees of the willow and pine nuts family.
The flying squirrel is hardly noticeable in the forest: like a real commando, it has camouflage clothes. Such variegation is ideal for the thicket. The flying squirrel sheds just like an ordinary squirrel, twice a year.
A flying squirrel lives in the hollows of trees, and in the vicinity of human habitation it can even live in birdhouses. Contrary to popular belief, when flying, the tail of the squirrel does not play the role of a rudder, but a stabilizer, and when it lands on a trunk or branch, it also plays the role of a brake. The Belkin House can be found from the nearby scattered remains of her meal.
Flying youngsters are hatched for five weeks, in one litter two to four blind little squirrels are born, which only begin to see in two weeks. True, after that they grow up very quickly. A month later, young flying squirrels deftly jump from tree to tree, mastering the planning flight. And fifty days after birth, they feel old enough and independent to leave their father's (well, or mother's) home forever. True, they usually settle nearby: close relatives often have housing on one tree, although everyone has their own “apartment” with a separate entrance.
Here she is - a flying squirrel. A photo of this charming animal in flight is an example of grace. True, photographing them is hampered by the fact that flying people are mostly nocturnal.
