When do we cross the line from reality to fantasy? Sometimes nature will surprise us with a creature that, when seen, forces us to say, “There is no way that is real!” John Koprowski thought just that when he saw the Malabar giant squirrel for the first time.
Looking more like a small monkey, the Malabar giant squirrel is also called the Indian giant squirrel.
If you grew up in the United States, seeing one of these squirrels may be quite shocking! The most common squirrel in the US is the eastern gray squirrel. They can be found in most suburban backyard stealing from birdfeeders! The Malabar giant squirrel is twice its size.
From head to tail, the squirrels are 36 inches long.
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From head to tail, the length of the Malabar squirrel can reach over 3 feet long! Imagine seeing a 3-foot long squirrel stealing from your bird feeder – I would just let it be!
“These are giants!” Koprowski, professor and associate director at the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona, told The Dodo.
One of the coolest things about the squirrels isn’t even their size.
While they are massive, they have some other features that make them even cooler! Each squirrel has a unique color pattern that spans some incredible hues. They can come in black, brown, orange, maroon, and purple, all mixed together on the squirrel. It is really rare to see maroon and purple in a mammal!
The colors are more than show, they help the squirrels to survive.
The mottling of their fur works perfectly with the shadows and shades of a forest with sun shining through.
“In the shaded understory of a dense forest, the patchy colors and dark hues are a great adaptation to avoiding detection,” Koprowski said. “But when you see these in the sunlight, they show their ‘true colors’ and beautiful pelage [fur].”
They love to hop around and eat whatever fruit they can find.
Almost like a bodybuilder, the squirrels have incredibly strong arms in order to find and open whatever food they encounter. They look stocky from certain angles! If you want to see them, the only real way would be to catch a flight to eastern or southern India and start tracking through the woods.
“They are pretty shy,” Pizza Ka Yee Chow, squirrel expert and research fellow at Hokkaido University, told The Dodo. “One of my friends who lives in India shared with me that the best way to see these giant squirrels is to climb up on a tree, stay very quiet and wait for them to emerge from their [nest].”
Currently listed as “least concern”, these squirrels aren’t endangered.
While many of the beautiful creatures in the world are becoming rarer, these ones should be around for a long time. They can tolerate humans and even some of the development that comes along with humans.
These ancient squirrels have been around for a long time – thankfully they should stay around for quite a while longer.
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