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Black giant squirrel

Black giant squirrel
Ratufa bicolor 6237.jpg
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae
Genus: Ratufa
Species: R. bicolor
Binomial name
Ratufa bicolor
(Sparrman, 1778)
Subspecies
  • R. b. bicolor
  • R. b. condorensis
  • R. b. felli
  • R. b. gigantea
  • R. b. hainana
  • R. b. leucogenys
  • R. b. melanopepla
  • R. b. palliata
  • R. b. phaeopepla
  • R. b. smithi
Ratufa bicolor range map.svg
Black giant squirrel range
Synonyms

Tennentii, source: Layard, in Blyth, 1849


Tennentii, source: Layard, in Blyth, 1849

The black giant squirrel or Malayan giant squirrel (Ratufa bicolor) is a large tree squirrel in the genus Ratufa native to the Indomalayan zootope. It is found in forests from northern Bangladesh, northeast India, eastern Nepal, Bhutan, southern China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and western Indonesia.

Head and body length varies from 35 to 58 centimetres (14 to 23 in) in length, and the tail is up to 60 centimetres (24 in) long, with an overall length of up to 118 centimetres (46 in). The back, ears and bushy tail are deep brown to black with a lighter buff-colored belly.

Ratufa bicolor's range includes a variety of bioregions that all share the commonality of being forested. It ranges in elevation from sea level up to at least 1,400 metres (4,600 ft), in some of the most rugged land in the world. However, in recent decades, R. bicolor's habitat has been steadily encroached upon by human settlement, timber harvesting and agriculture, which along with overhunting by human predation in parts of its range, has resulted in a total loss of up to 30% of the population in the past ten years. However, in some places this species is protected from hunting by law or tradition.

In South Asia R. bicolor dwells among tropical and subtropical coniferous and broadleaf forests.


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Wikipedia

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