An Alphabet of Mammals #2: N to Z

This is the second of my two-part Alphabet of Mammals series, which began here. If you're an orderly sort of person you might like to look at that first, especially to see what my guidelines are for including species and groups. (Very briefly I strive for each letter to introduce one species or group of species from both Australia and elsewhere, with wriggle room.) Or, you could just dive in here and visit part 1 at your convenience later or never. Either way, here we go again!

N is for Australian Sea Lion (Neophoca) and coatis (Nasua) [!]

OK, here's where I've had to invoke the rule that says I can use scientific names if common ones aren't available (ie if I haven't got photos to illustrate a species with an appropriate common name). Appeals will be considered...

Australian Sea Lion Neophoca cinerea, Bay of Islands, Esperance, mid-central southern
coast of Western Australia. It is the only member of its genus, and is found from Spencer Gulf
in South Australia west to Geraldton on the west coast of WA, though more than 
75% of them now are found in South Australia. Formerly they bred as far east
as the Bass Strait, until the pernicious sealing industry of the early 19th century destroyed
the colonies. They are listed as Endangered and numbers seem to be still falling. We can
only seek to learn more about them, apply that knowledge, and hope.

White-nosed Coati Nasua narica, Costa Rica. Coatis are a group of four species of
medium-sized omnivores from the Americas in the family that also includes raccoons.
This one occurs through Central America, from the northern tip of South America to
the far southern US. Coatis are diurnal and live in sometimes large troops, eating
invertebrates, fruit and a range of vertebrates, bird and reptile eggs. At tourist
sites (eg the Iguazu Falls) they can become bold and aggressive as the result
of irresponsible feeding.

O is for oryxes and Olinguito

Galla Oryx Oryx gallarum, Shaba NR, central Kenya. This is one of six species of Oryx,
big powerful arid-land antelopes from south-western and north-eastern Africa. All but one
have long straight ringed horns and dark patterns on light-coloured bodies. Two species, 
Arabian and Scimitar-horned Oryx, from the Middle East and northern Africa, 
were declared extinct in the wild, but both have rescued by captive breeding and 
managed re-releases. The Galla Oryx (centred on northern Kenya and extending 
just over its borders) was until recently included as part of  the Beisa or 
East African Oryx complex. Both species (and another related one) are Endangered.

I would not normally impose such a poor photo on you, but this time there's a
special reason for doing so. This is an Olinguito Bassaricyon neblina, at Bellavista
Lodge in Ecuador, just north of Quito but up in the cloud forest (neblina means cloudy). I took 
the photo in 2013, immediately after it had been first described earlier in the year. You can read 
a more detailed version of its story here (written just after I'd seen it) but in brief, after years of 
belief that the bigger Olingo B. gabbii, in the raccoon and coati family of omnivores,
represented just one species, in that year three species were announced, including this 
smaller montane species. (There are now four olingo species recognised.)
A pair had been coming to the lodge for some time, taking advantage of bird feeders,
and our visit happened to coincide with one of theirs. No flashes allowed of course
and my camera was struggling, but I regard these of some of the most exciting
photos I've taken. In fact, here's another, which gives a slightly better overall view.

Note the long tail, which is not prehensile.

P is for pademelons and Proboscis Monkey

Red-necked Pademelons Thylogale thetis, Mount Clunie NP, northern NSW.
Pademelons form a group of seven species of small forest wallabies, four of
which are only found in New Guinea, the rest in eastern Australia. This one lives in
wet forests, including rainforests, of near-coastal southern Queensland and
northern NSW, coming out to feed in adjacent grasslands in late afternoon and early 
morning. I took this photo from the verandah of our cabin early one morning.

Male Proboscis Monkey Nasalis larvatus, Labuk Bay, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.
This extraordinary monkey is the only one of its genus and is endemic to Borneo, 
where it lives in mangroves and adjacent coastal forests. 
The huge nose is believed to act as a resonating chamber.

Q is for Quokka

Quokkas Setonix brachyurus, Rottnest Island, off Perth, south-western WA.
I've already featured a few kangaroo groups here, but this is an Australian blog after all. The Dutch 
explorer Willem de Vlamingh thought they were giant rats (well he was a sailor, not a zoologist) 
and named the island Rottnest (ie 'rats' nest') for them. Quokkas are alone in their genus, 
small and chunky with short tails. On the mainland they live in dense coastal vegetation 
along the south-west coast and are very shy, having predators, especially foxes, to contend with. 
On Rottnest however the land is fairly open, and there are no foxes but there are plenty of 
tourists which can provide their own challenge for coexistence. 

R is for right whales and Rakali 

Southern Right Whale Eubalaena australis, off the Nullarbor Cliffs,
Great Australian Bight, far western South Australia. In summer this whale feeds
in the rich Southern Ocean around Antarctica, but in winter comes north to 
the waters off the southern continents to breed. This site, known as the 
Head of the Bight, attracts Right Whales every year to calve in the 
big sheltered bay. By September, when these photos were taken, the calves 
(see below) are almost big enough to travel, and they're preparing to swim 
south again. In the 19th and 20th centuries they were hunted 
almost to extinction, but numbers are now recovering.

To stand on the cliffs and look down on these magnificent travellers is a 
very special experience indeed.

Rakali (also boringly known just as 'water rate') at Forbes, central western NSW.
This is a very handsome big old Australian rodent (relatively speaking - its ancestors probably
reached Australia about five million years ago, as we drifted close enough to Asia).
In the 1990s the federal environment department (its name changes with the seasons so
I don't even try to keep up these days) recognised that people have an unfortunate but
understandable* down on rats, so recommended that the name Rakali be adopted. It's
a name used by the Ngarrindjeri people of the lower Murray and it's gradually gaining
traction. Rakali eats fish, shellfish, yabbies, water birds, small reptiles and mammals, 
frogs and insects. They shelter and breed in burrows in banks.
*ie given that most people's experience is with introduced urban rats.

S is for sloths and squirrels

Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth Bradypus variegatus, Rincon de la Vieja NP,
northern Costa Rica. There are six living species of sloths, the remnants of a
rich and diverse South American non-marsupial mammal fauna which was largely
exterminated by the influx of mammals from North America when the two 
continents were joined by the Isthmus of Panama just three million years ago.
There are two Families of sloths, one of them represented by just one species 
of two-toed sloth (referring to the 'fingers' actually); they look very similar indeed
but actually parted company some 28 million years ago! Sloths live their
lives upside down (not necessarily as dramatically as this one), live on foliage,
and come down only to defecate - and no-one really knows why they do so.
This species is widespread from Brazil to central America; I have read that in 
Costa Rica they account for more mammal biomass than any other
mammal except humans. (For more on sloths - and their fellow survivors,
anteaters and armadillos - see here for something I posted a few years ago.)

Variegated Squirrel Sciurus variegatoides, Rincon de la Vieja NP, Rincon de la Vieja NP,
northern Costa Rica. Wherever I've been fortunate enough to travel, in every non-frozen
continent outside of Australia, I have enjoyed squirrels. This is unsurprising, as there are nearly
300 species of them. They are rodents and many are agile arborealists, though there is a
diverse group of burrowing ground squirrels (see under X below), and there are also 
50 species of gliding squirrels in Asia and North America. 
This lovely squirrel, which comes in a variety of colours, hence the name, is common
throughout central America. Actually it might be time for a full post on squirrels.

T is for tree kangaroos and Tayra

Lumholtz's Tree Kangaroo Dendrolagus lumholtzi, Malanda, Atherton Tableland,
north Queensland. I love the tree kangaroos' story; starting with a small terrestrial ancestor, 
some of whose descendants took to the trees where some evolved into possums and others 
came down again to found the great diversity of modern kangaroos. Then, one of them 
- probably a rock wallaby - again took to the trees, where they evolved into 14 species 
of living tree kangaroos, 12 of which are confined to New Guinea, the other two being from
 north Queensland. All live in rainforests. They climb powerfully by hugging the tree and
 'hopping' up the trunk, balanced by the long heavy tail. They don't hesitate to leap down 
to lower trees or the ground. Lumholtz's is confined to the Atherton Tableland, 
while Bennett's Tree Kangaroo is found north of the Daintree River. 
They are wonderful animals and this sighting, which took many years to achieve, was a thrill. 

Tayra Eira barbara, Trilha dos Tucanos Lodge in the Atlantic forest near São Paulo,
Brazil. This is a most impressive giant weasel, with a body length of up to 70cm plus tail.
Unlike many weasels though the Tayra is omnivorous - in fact this one was busily
scoffing bananas at a bird feeder. It is found in forests throughout central America and 
much of northern and eastern South America. Tayras are excellent climbers and
just about any small animal can be part of their diet. 

U is for Uromys (Giant White-tailed Rat)

Giant White-tailed Rat Uromys caudimaculatus, Wooroonooran NP, tropical Queensland.
I didn't strictly take this photo, but I did put out the trail camera that did the work when this 
beauty came out of the rainforest to investigate the fruit scraps that we'd put out for the
Long-nosed Bandicoots and Musky Rat-kangaroos that we'd seen. It is a giant among
Australian rats too, with body and tail each more than 35cm long and weighing 
close to a kilogram. It's a shame we can't see the tail with the last third strikingly white.
They forage on the ground for seeds of rainforest trees which they crack with their powerful
teeth; some seeds are buried for 'later on' and if not recovered will germinate. It seems
that this rat thus plays an important role in distributing such seeds. They also compete
with bandicoots, Musky Rat-kangaroos and Striped Possums for Bess Beetles (Family
Passalidae) in rotting logs, climb trees looking for bird nests and hunt crabs
in the mangroves. It's very adaptable rat and we were delighted to even catch a brief view of it.

V is for Vontsira and viscachas

Ring-tailed Vontsira Galidia elegans, Amber Mountain NP, northern Madagascar.
This is one of ten members of the Family Euplenidae, the Madagascan carnivores,
and the only one we saw, so a bit special for us. It is distantly related to the mongooses,
and this and others in the family are often wrongly called mongooses. This one
unexpectedly came out of the forest while we were having lunch in this very rich 
little park (18,000ha). It mostly kept its distance but undoubtedly checked later to see if 
we'd forgotten anything. They are small (weighing less than a kilo) and hunt
for just about anything smaller than themselves.

Southern Viscacha Lagidium viscacia, Lauca NP, far northern Chile. Lauca is a
remarkable place, more than 3000 metres above sea level where the Atacama Desert
meets the Andes; more on it here if you're interested. Viscachas are old South Americans rodents,
whose distant ancestors rafted across a narrower Atlantic from Africa perhaps 45 million
years ago. In addition to the viscachas their descendants include Capybaras, agoutis,
Guinea Pigs and South American porcupines. There are four species of viscacha, all
living high in the Andes from Ecuador to southern Patagonia. This species is found from 
far southern Peru (just north of Lauca), down to central Patagonia. A relatively big
rodent, weighing some 3kg, it lives in colonies among the rocks, sunning, like this one,
during the day and coming out later to graze on tough grasses, mosses and lichens.

W is for Waterbuck and wombats

Male Ellipsen Waterbuck Kobus ellipsiprymnus, Shaba NR, central Kenya. There are two 
species of waterbuck, big powerful antelopes which live in grasslands near water. This
one is from eastern Africa and another species (the Defassa Waterbuck) lives from
central Africa across western Africa - until recently they were lumped together. 
They live in small herds and only the males have the curved and spiralled horns.

Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats Lasiorhinus latifrons, Brookfield CP, South Australian 
Murraylands. While I could have used a better photo of the better-known and far more
familiar Common Wombat of south-eastern Australia, I thought that this one (a poor scan
of an old slide) might be more interesting. There are three species of living wombats,
large burrowing marsupials whose closest relative is the Koala. This species lives 
in limestone country in the Murray mallee districts of South Australia (such as here)
and on the Nullarbor Plain in the far west of SA and adjacent WA. They are well 
adapted to life in an arid landscape where free water is scarce; a slow metabolism
assists in water conservation. Unlike the Common Wombat they are highly sociable, 
living in networks of burrows that have been occupied for generations, with scores of 
entrances and covering up to 30 hectares. (The Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat, now 
restricted to a few small woodland reserves in central Queensland, is listed as Critically 
Endangered and though intensive recovery programs are slowly increasing its numbers, 
there are still only about 400 individuals in the world.)

X is for Xerus (Unstriped Ground Squirrel)

Unstriped Ground Squirrel Xerus rutilus, Tarangire NP, northern Tanzania. Yes I was 
struggling a bit with X, or I'd not have doubled up on a squirrel (having featured all
squirrels just above). But, as it is X I don't feel too embarrassed and this one 
represents a distinct subfamily of squirrels. There are some 130 
species of ground-dwelling squirrels, including marmots, prairie dogs and chipmunks. 
They are found in North America, Eurasia and Africa, including this one, 
the only one of its genus and found in semi-arid landscapes in north-east Africa.
They are mostly solitary animals, but in emergencies will share their burrows 
with other ground squirrels, including those of other species.

Y is for Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby and Yellow-crowned Brush-tailed Tree Rat [!]

I've tried to use group names as far as possible, but Y has defeated me, and this time my response has been to use a couple of mammal names whose adjectives start with Y.

Yellow-footed Rock-Wallaby Petrogale xanthopus, Brachina Gorge, Ikara/
Flinders Ranges NP, South Australia. Rock-wallabies are among my very 
favourite marsupials, a closely-related group off 17 species (though there are probably more, 
with some recently-evolved distinct species in the northern Great Dividing Range looking
pretty much identical physically). It seems that they separated from the pademelons (see 
P above) as the land began to dry out, adapting to the new aridity. The most recent
connection however seems to be with the tree kangaroos (T above). Adaptations
include broad sandshoe-like feet for gripping rock faces, a heavy tail for balancing
and a habit of leaving youngsters, just out of the pouch, in a cave or rock shelter for 
safety while mum forages on the dangerous cliff faces. To watch a rock-wallaby
glide effortlessly up a cliff is like watching water flow uphill. Yellow-foots are
perhaps the most beautiful of all though threatened like all of their kin,
 with the Flinders and Gammon Ranges being their strongholds, plus outliers in
the Barrier Ranges across the border near Broken Hill, and some ranges in 
central Queensland where we've seen them in Bladensburg NP.

Yellow-crowned Brush-tailed Tree Rat Isothrix bistriata at Muyuna Lodge in the 
basin of the upper Amazon River in northern Peru. This attractively plump long-furred
rat is one of a group of five South American brush-tailed rats, which are not well-known
but appear to all live in trees, sheltering in tree hollows by day while sometimes watching
the world go by. This one is found across the western Amazon basin, in 
seasonally flooded tropical lowland rainforests.

and... Z is for zebras (of course)...

Mountain Zebras Equus zebra, Goegap NR, north-western South Africa. This is one
of three zebra species, though not the one that is by far the most common and widespread
across the plains of southern and eastern Africa, the Plains Zebra E. quagga.
Mountain Zebras are restricted to small scattered populations in dry rocky country 
in western South Africa and Namibia. I wrote a bit more about zebras here,
a few years ago.

Thank you for persevering, if you've indeed got this far. If you have, I guess you found something of interest here, which I'm glad about. Mammals are one of my foremost natural history passions, along with birds and orchids... (Everything else too really, but these are the ones I seem to most come back to and try to learn more about.) See you next time, for something quite different though.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 14 MAY

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Sepilok; an oasis in the oil palms #3

Over the past two postings I've introduced the lovely and forested enclave of Sepilok in eastern Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo. You can find the first one here. Today I finish by visiting the side-by-side Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and Sun Bear Conservation Centre which perform valuable conservation and animal welfare roles, but which also contain a wealth of wildlife in the forests that encompass them.

Feeding platform in the forest; the ranger does not directly interact with the animals,
which are being encouraged to leave the rehab centre for the forest.

Every year many young Orangutans are orphaned – through accidents or through the illegal pet trade. The role of the rehabilitation centre (which has been operating for 50 years) is not only to save them from a lonely unpleasant life, but to teach them how to be wild Orangs again, in order to return them to the wild. Visitors can see the stages of this, including now-adult ‘rescue Orangs’ coming back in from the forest for an occasional free feed, sometimes bringing wild-born young. The food supplied, mostly bananas, is designed to offer emergency support, but is too bland and limited to encourage dependency. Indeed the feeding stations are intended to lead animals to the reserve, not out of it. The Nature Reserve within which the centre is located has only 4,000 of primary rainforest but it supports a healthy Orangutan population. Males, which need big territories, are released at more distant sites, as there are already wild males in the area.

Outside exercise area for young orphan orangs, as part of their rehabilitation.

Female Bornean Orangutan with baby. She was well away from the centre,
though doubtless visits the feeding platforms from time to time.
All such babies are fathered by wild males.

The name orangutan (also written as two words, or hyphenated) means ‘forest man’ in Malay; it probably originated from a south Kalimantan dialect. We now know that the Bornean Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) is a separate species from the Sumatran Orangutan (P. abelii), which makes the conservation of orangs on both islands even more critical. (And as of 2017 a third species, Tapanuli orangutan P. tapanuliensis, was recognised, from southern Sumatra.) They are the most arboreal of the great apes, seldom coming to the ground – though Bornean orangs, where there are no tigers, do so more than the Sumatran species. They are also the most solitary, living alone except while youngsters are still with their mother; they will however feed amiably in the same fruiting tree while food is abundant. They are essentially fruit-eaters, though they will supplement their diet with other vegetable matter on occasions. Orangutans are essential vectors of the fruit of various forest plant species.

Young free-living orangutan using the forest boardwalk railings as a route through the forest.

Males hold a large territory, within which are the territories of several females. Males don’t mature reproductively until they are at least 15 years old, though that may be delayed even further if there is a dominant resident male in the area. When they do mature it happens quickly, with the development of cheek pads and throat pouches. Females also do not begin breeding until they are 14 or 15 years old, and remarkably, tend to wait some eight years between births. Babies are entirely helpless for the first two years of their life, needing to be carried and fed. After that they begin to climb but don’t wean until they are four. 

Bornean Orangutans are listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List (Sumatran and Tapanuli Orangutans are Critically Endangered). Loss and fragmentation of forests (by logging, clearing for agriculture, especially oil palms, mass burning and road building) are important causes of decline, along with illegal hunting, for bush meat, crop protection, traditional medicine and the pet trade.

The Sun Bear Conservation Centre is a rehabilitation and research centre, only opened to the public in 2014 though founded earlier, for young bears rescued from illegal captivity. They live in a very large fenced-off area of rainforest, where they learn to forage and interact – it can be quite uplifting to see them playing and generally being real bears. The first release, which was successful, took place in 2015; local release is not possible as they require a large foraging range – up to 15 square kilometres for a male.

Young Sun Bears playing in their forest enclosure.

Sun Bears Helarctos malayanus are small bears (a big male weighs no more than 80kg), living in rainforests of south-east Asia from Bangladesh to Sumatra and Borneo, though their range is now much fragmented. They climb well and often, seeking insects (especially termites, ants and beetle larvae), and honey, which they extract from hollows with powerful jaws and a long tongue, and a lot of fruit. Young bears stay with their mothers, suckling, for 18 months. They are threatened by deforestation and widespread illegal hunting, including for the pet trade. The Sepilok centre is an important hub of Sun Bear research.

We were told that this was the first time this young bear had climbed this big stump,
a significant accomplishment.

A covered shelter looks out over the enclosure, and continues as a raised boardwalk, providing views of other wildlife as well as bears.

A tough old male Long-tailed Macaque Macaca fascicularis, who was in no doubt as to who owned the railings!

Another much more demure occupant of the railing was also very special.

Paradise Tree Snake Chrysopelea paradisi; just after this photo was taken I was astonished when the little snake
launched itself into the air and glided elegantly to the ground. These 'flying' snakes glide on flattened
rib cages, covering up to 100 metres from high in the canopy.

Little Spiderhunter Arachnothera longirostra. This remarkably long-billed member of the sunbird family
does hunt spiders, but it is probably more reliant on nectar.

The best wildlife watching however is along the kilometres of walking tracks in the forest at the rehabilitation centre.

Charlotte's Bulbul Iole charlottae; this is a Bornean endemic, split from the more widespread
Buff-vented Bulbul I. crypta.

Raffles's Malkoa Rhinortha chlorophaea male; pity about his modesty with regard to the leaf!
The malkohas are a group of large non-parasitic tropical cuckoos.

Bushy-crested Hornbills Anorrhinus galeritus. A slightly odd hornbill, with no close relations,
highly sociable and very noisy!

Rufous Woodpecker Micropternus brachyurus, another single-species genus.
An ant-eating specialist, it is widespread in southern Asia.

Prevost's Squirrel Callosciurus prevostii; this north-eastern Borneo black form
lacks the striking white sides seen elsewhere in its range.

Plain Pygmy Squirrel Exilisciurus exilis, a Bornean endemic and one of the world's smallest squirrels,
with a combined head and body length of some 12cm. This little delight foraged through the
undergrowth just off the track for some time.

Striped Tree Skink Dasia vittata, another Borneo special.

Wagler's Pit Viper Tropidolaemus wagleri, an entirely arboreal mostly nocturnal species which is highly
variable in colour. Even when hunting however they are sit-and-wait predators of birds, mice and lizards.

Probably a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae - thanks Susan!

Borneo Birdwing Troides andromache; this magnificent big butterfly is restricted to Borneo.

If you go to Sandarkan for instance, you'll probably go to Sepilok and the rehabilitation centres; don't forget to stroll further along the tracks though, you're bound to be surprised and rewarded.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 26 JULY

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Sepilok; an oasis in the oil palms #2

Last time I introduced the Sepilok area in eastern Sabah, Malaysian Bornea. With this post I'm continuing that series, but with a fairly brief post, relating to the surrounds of the Rainforest Discovery Centre, which is immediately adjacent to the Orang Utan and Sun Bear rehabilitation centres. 

This is primarily a schools education centre, but the public are welcome. It comprises an excellent interpretive centre and walking tracks through both labelled plantings of rainforest species and primary rainforest. One such walk circles a lake and climbs, via a boardwalk, to a canopy-level viewing tower. Flowering plants around the carpark support a good population of sunbirds. My photos on the whole were disappointing, and some are really not usable, but rather than ignoring the centre I've opted for this short photo essay, covering at least three visits there over two years. 

The forest itself is superb, especially as experienced from the boardwalk and viewing tower. Here are some views of it.

I really can't get enough of tropical rainforest!

The dipterocarps are members of the family Dipterocarpaceae, nearly 600 species of rainforest trees found throughout the tropical forests South America, Africa and Asia, but Borneo is their hotspot. There, you have a very good chance of getting it right by identifying a rainforest tree as a dipterocarp!

Parashorea sp., Dipterocarpaceae, Rainforest Discovery Centre.

Cauliflory on Sterculia megistophylla, Family Malvaceae (formerly in a smaller family, Sterculiaceae,
but in common with the current ways of botanical taxonomy it has been engulfed into a massive megafamily,
with arguably a loss of nuanced information).  Cauliflory ('stem flowering') seems to be a method of offering
flowers and fruit to pollinators and dispersers, though its advantages are not always obvious.

Adenanthera pavonina, a pea family tree, whose flowers are normally way above our heads;
this one was alongside the elevated boardwalk. Parts of the plant have been widely used in traditional
medicine, and there appears to be a fairly sound pharmacological basis to this.

Obviously there are birds present, but as is often the way in rainforests it is not always easy to photograph them. (Still less easy to do so well, though I'd like to be able to have my time there over with my current camera.)

Grey-cheeked Bulbul Alophoixus tephrogenys (at least I'm almost sure of the species, though a bit more
light would have been good). I do tend to  have trouble with bulbuls I'm afraid.

Ashy Tailorbird Orthotomus ruficeps, a common busy little Bornean bird, so named because it constructs
its remarkable nest by sewing the edges of a large leaf together, punching holes and drawing spider web
or plant fibre through them to hold it together.

Female Orange-backed Woodpecker Reinwardtipicus validus. This is a fairly big woodpecker,
and the only one of its genus. He is more colourful.

Eastern Crimson Sunbird Aethopyga siparaja. I almost left this photo out, but he is very handsome...

Lower down are reptiles.

Skink Mabuya (or Eutropis) multifasciata.

Malayan Box Terrapin Cuora amboinensis.

But perhaps the most impressive animal we saw there was a mammal, for which we waited until near dark. The following photos give the impression of more light than was actually present - I used a very high ISO and balanced the camera on the boardwalk railing for a very slow shot in torch light. I'd never seen any of the 'flying' squirrels previously, and this one was magnificent. Our guides knew their day-roost hollow, so we just waited for them to emerge.

Giant Red Flying Squirrel Petaurista petaurista.The 'giant' part of the name is not used lightly;
head and body are over 40cm long and the tail longer still.

Giant Red Flying Squirrel against the moon.

After a few minutes it turned towards us and glided directly overhead into the forest, at least 100 metres in the air. It was an impressive finale.

I'll be back next time to complete this celebration of the wildlife of Sepilok.

Sunset over the forest, Rainforest Disovery Centre, Sepilok.

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