Cute Giant squirrel

 

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