Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Hodgson's flying squirrel (Petaurista magnificus)

A really rare image. Hodgson's flying squirrel (Petaurista magnificus). On the way back to Gangtok from Lachen (Sikkim) at around 9.30 PM, saw something like a flying squirrel on the edge of the road. First we thought it is injured, but when looked through the binocs it was clear that its a flying squirrel and is not injured but is licking the ground.It was there for about 3 minutes. Then it went to the other side of the road, facing the valley..... got ready to glide.........then................vanished in the dark.
The main identification character is the reddish-orange tail with black tip. This was an amazing sighting of this elusive animal.