Wherever you live, there’s no doubt a local population of small animals that you see so often, you almost don’t think of them anymore. This may be lizards in the southwest, or squirrels in the northeast. But seeing a different area’s version of those animals is something else entirely.
Squirrels: so what?
I know they don’t live everywhere in the world (hello, Hawaii!). But squirrels are so widespread that we don’t really take notice of them. They’re actually pretty cool — they’re just way too common.
Some squirrels are show-stoppers.
You’re looking at something found only on the Indian subcontinent. It’s a squirrel that’s way bigger than its North American and European cousins, one with a whole array of colors to boot.
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It goes by many names.
Properly classified as Ratufa indica , it’s more commonly known as the Indian giant squirrel or the Malabar giant squirrel. These squirrels feature so many color variations, it’s hard to find any two that look the same.
They wear a coat of many colors.
The squirrels feature colors from the same palette — one that includes brownish colors ranging from beige all the way to chocolate brown — but each coat tends to be different.
They do have one thing in common.
While the head itself can be different colors, all of these squirrels have the same telltale white spot on the top of their head, in between their ears.
They’re big.
You’d expect as much from any species that includes “giant squirrel” in its name. But these squirrels, who mostly stick to tree canopies, are noticeably big compared to other squirrels.
It’s their length that makes them so big.
From head to base of the tail, and adult squirrel is a little over a foot long, at 14 inches. But the tail is impressively long, measuring two feet long all by itself.
They tend to stay up high.
These squirrels build nests way up in trees to avoid predators. While they’ll move from tree to tree, they tend to do this by jumping rather than scurrying along the ground.
Such powerful legs.
These squirrels, giant though they may be, are capable of impressive jumps for their body size. They can leap from one tree and land in another one that’s up to 20 feet away.
They like their own company.
Unlike the squirrels in an urban park, which seem to function as basically a gang, these squirrels live a mostly solitary life and only really come together for mating purposes.
Stay very still…
Somewhat unusually for squirrels, this species doesn’t usually run from predators. Instead, they prefer to flatten themselves and stay motionless in the hopes that the predator either won’t see them or will lose interest.
Their diet is varied.
Some species will eat insects and bird eggs, but for the most part these squirrels are vegetarians. Their diet consists of stuff they can find in the trees, like bark, nuts, fruit, and flowers.
There are four or five subspecies.
They’re all pretty similar, so no need to take notes. But this is clearly a lineage that’s thriving on the Indian subcontinent, with different variations calling different parts of the region home.
They’re doing fine.
Like many squirrel species, the Indian giant squirrel is resiliant and thriving. None of the subspecies are listed on any endangered lists. That said, a close relative, the black giant squirrel , isn’t doing quite as well.
Squirrels, man.
It’s hard to care much one way or the other about squirrels, but these tough rodents seem to find a way to make it work wherever they may be. If they’re gigantic and multicolored, well, that makes them even cooler.
