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Mammal

Common giant flying squirrel

Petaurista petaurista

On the Rajasthan Board's rare and threatened animals listIUCN: Least Concern
Common giant flying squirrel (Petaurista petaurista)

Image: Prashanthns · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · As stated on the file page · Resized

Scientific name
Petaurista petaurista
Family
Sciuridae, order Rodentia
Group
Mammal
Conservation status
Least Concern

A gliding giant of the night forests.

  • Spot it A very large reddish-brown squirrel with a long bushy tail, gliding on skin flaps.
  • Home Tall forests with big trees.
  • Food web Eats fruit, seeds, leaves and bark; owls and leopards may prey on it.
  • Why it matters Carries seeds between trees as it glides and links forest fruit to night predators.

Read more: Red giant flying squirrel on Wikipedia

Sources and credits

Records and field notes

  • RajasthanThe Rajasthan State Biodiversity Board lists it among the rare, endangered and threatened animals of Rajasthan, for Sitamata and Phulwari ki Nal sanctuaries, Udaipur.[1]

Sources

  1. Rajasthan State Biodiversity Board. List of Rare, Endangered and Threatened Animals of Rajasthan (39 animals, with localities) (government). Official list, published as a PDF.
  2. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (species pages linked on each entry) (database). Global conservation status. Every species page was opened.
  3. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF species data (family, order, Hindi names, IUCN category) (database). Open biodiversity data. Used for classification, Hindi common names and the IUCN category where one is given.
  4. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (opening lines of each species article, CC BY-SA 4.0). The link on each entry goes to the article (reference). Not peer reviewed. Only the opening description is used, and statements about origin or medicinal use are left out.
  5. Short introductions and key points written with AI help (Google Gemini and Claude) and checked against GBIF where possible (reference). AI-assisted text for general readers. Please check important details before relying on them.

The tag before each record shows the place it was checked for.

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