Nesting trees of the Red Giant Gliding Squirrel Petaurista petaurista (Mammalia: Rodentia: Sciuridae) in a tropical forest of Namdapha National Park, India

Abstract

The present study investigated the nesting habits of the Red Giant Gliding Squirrel in the tropical forest of Namdapha National Park, India within the time period of 2012–2013. Gliding squirrel nest trees were located by searching for them with using spotlighting during evenings and early mornings. For each den site we recorded data on nesting tree species, total height of tree, height of the nest on tree, tree diameter at breast height (DBH), and canopy connectivity of the nesting tree. We observed P. petaurista using cavity nests (n=27) in eight tree species. The majority of nest trees observed were in Altingia excelsa (40.7%) and Terminalia myriocarpa (22.2%). Trees with less canopy connectivity were preferred for nesting where 59.3% of nest trees had <25% canopy connectivity. Petaurista petaurista nested in trees with an average of 31.1±0.86m (Mean ± SE) height and the nests were located at a mean height of 17.8±0.89m (SE) (min & max: 9.3m & 35.2m). Mean DBH of nesting trees was 70.6±0.98cm (SE) (min & max: 38.2cm & 168.8cm). This data helps in filling the gaps on the denning ecology of the species and may be useful for the management and conservation purpose of forest trees.