v5i1.99
Volume 5 | Number 1 | May 2013
Short Note
ISSN: 1800-427X (print)
eISSN: 1800-427X (online)
DOI:10.47605/tapro.v5i1.99
Submitted date: 2 April 2012
Accepted date: 20 April 2013
Published date: 15 June 2013
Pp. 85–86.
The small flying squirrel (Petinomys fuscocapillus) observed after 78 years in Sri Lanka
R.P. Nanayakkara, N. Vishvanath & T.G.T. Kusuminda*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: t.kusuminda@gmail.com
Petinomys fuscocapillus (Kelaart, 1852) is one of two nocturnal Squirrels found in Sri Lanka, and the distribution of the species is only known through a few possible occurrences and museum specimens which were collected nearly hundred years ago. The species was considered to be extinct in India until 1989, when it was rediscovered in a coconut grove in Kerala state, India. In Sri Lanka it was reported by Phillips (1935) from the wet and intermediate zones of the island, and subsequently the occurrence of this species was confirmed by camera trap by Jayasekara et al. (2007) in Sinharaja tropical rain forest. Here we report the first physical examination of this species in Sri Lanka after 78 years, and we publish the first color–photographs. The authors obtained a direct sighting of the Small flying squirrel in the Knuckles Forest Reserve at an elevation of 522 m asl.
Section Editor: Colin P. Groves
eISSN: 1800-427X (online)
DOI:10.47605/tapro.v5i1.99
Submitted date: 2 April 2012
Accepted date: 20 April 2013
Published date: 15 June 2013
Pp. 85–86.
The small flying squirrel (Petinomys fuscocapillus) observed after 78 years in Sri Lanka
R.P. Nanayakkara, N. Vishvanath & T.G.T. Kusuminda*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: t.kusuminda@gmail.com
Petinomys fuscocapillus (Kelaart, 1852) is one of two nocturnal Squirrels found in Sri Lanka, and the distribution of the species is only known through a few possible occurrences and museum specimens which were collected nearly hundred years ago. The species was considered to be extinct in India until 1989, when it was rediscovered in a coconut grove in Kerala state, India. In Sri Lanka it was reported by Phillips (1935) from the wet and intermediate zones of the island, and subsequently the occurrence of this species was confirmed by camera trap by Jayasekara et al. (2007) in Sinharaja tropical rain forest. Here we report the first physical examination of this species in Sri Lanka after 78 years, and we publish the first color–photographs. The authors obtained a direct sighting of the Small flying squirrel in the Knuckles Forest Reserve at an elevation of 522 m asl.
Section Editor: Colin P. Groves
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