Hello friends, finally we have found some answers
to COVID in form of vaccines, though it is a big relief but it will take long
time to get settle down. Do plan vaccination by consulting your family doctor, don’t
get carried away with rumors follow instructions of the doctor before you take any
action. Most important, COVID is not over yet so please continue to use ask and
sanitizer all the time.
Now after the social message let us get back to our
world of wild art, after a couple of trip reports it becomes very difficult to
finalize topic because of so many varieties you get at a different location.
Today while thinking one cute picture helped me to finalize the topic, this is
my favorite one but came after a long time. Like me, you will also fall in love
with the cuteness of this lovely creature, let us meet the Indian Giant squirrel in the
next section
The giant encounter
I am sure many of you will be
thinking squirrel and Giant? Yeh Kabhi Hua? Is this COVID impact? Hahaha 😂. A lot of claims made on COVID impact but I am not claiming I am making you aware
of this lovely creature, which is there in existence, but not many are aware.
So to start with, let me tell you details of my encounter and then we will
get into more details.
During my Satpura visit, the first time I saw this
lovely squirrel but reach was not that great to take the good frames, I was able to see it just for a fraction of a time. I was shocked to see such a giant size; it was surprising
for me to see a jumbo size squirrel, later Saurabh helped with more details. It took me another 4 years to find this beauty, Dandeli trip came as god gift to capture the cuteness.
Dandeli is one of the best habitats for Giant and hence I had a lot of expectations from it, on arrival at Kadumane we saw Giant but again not in a shape where we can get clear pictures. In wildlife, you need
patience and faith in mother nature, now with so many visits and learning from
Saurabh, Jogi, and Vishnu keeping patience is not a problem. It was just the beginning of the tour and hence we had a lot more to explore so I was not worried about good pictures. Now on the next day when we were exploring the timber depot, finally we got a clear picture here it was taking rest on top of the tree. This time squirrel had the patience to sleep without getting disturbed by our
presence otherwise it would have run away quickly.
The luck continued when we moved to Old Magazine
House as well, it was like dream come true, we got a good amount of opportunities to capture various moments, we could manage small videos of eating, jumping, moving around, etc, please visit DSLR to see why this is amongst my
favorite one, along with DSLR the next section will help you to understand various
facts of Giant one, so let's see what next section has to offer.
Fantastic facts
Not sure how many of you know that Squirrels are classified as rodents. Some common names in rodent list are mice,
rats, porcupines, Chipmunks etc.
A male Indian giant squirrel is called
a 'buck', a female is referred to as a 'doe', whereas offspring is called a
'pup, kit or kitten'. A group of these rodents is known as a 'dray or scurry'
Indian giant squirrel (also known as
Malabar Squirrel) is one of the most cute and lovable squirrels around the
globe. This animal exhibits 2 - 3 types of color pattern with shades of black,
brown and deep red
The body of the rodent varies from
deep red to brown with white patches on belly as well as dirty white or cream
colored under-parts and forelimbs. The animal has pink lips and nose. Long
hairs appear behind the mouth and nose of the rodent
The eyes are colored in bright dark or light
brown. The powerful and long tail is light brown with creamy white tip
The Indian giant squirrel is a native
Indian species, where this animal occurs in Satpura hill range of Madhya
Pradesh and Maharashtra. The preferred habitat of this rodent is deciduous and
most evergreen forests, found throughout peninsular India
These cautious and shy creatures are
usually active early in the morning and in the evening. During the midday, they
rest in tree holes or large, globe-shaped nests, constructed out of twigs and
leaves and typically located in trees
Each squirrel has 2 - 5 nests, found
within a small territory. One of these nests is made exclusively for producing
and nursing the young, while others are used as sleeping sites
As omnivorous animals, these squirrels
consume a wide variety of food, including fruits, flowers, nuts, bark, eggs of
birds, and insects
When threatened, these smart rodents confuse a
predator by running in various directions
The primary forms of communication are
vocalizations and scent. In addition, they are known to give signals with their
tails, usually twitching them in order to warn conspecifics of a threat
I hope you liked this blog, keep
blessing and keep motivating me to deliver unique stuff, do let me know your
feedback on btwildart@gmail.com
Learning of the day
State
Animal of Maharashtra
Indian
Giant/Malabar Squirrel
BT Wild Art
DSLR Section
