Pale Giant Squirrel

About the Pale Giant Squirrel

The cream-coloured giant squirrel or pale giant squirrel (Ratufa affinis) is a large tree squirrel in the genus Ratufa found in forests in the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Sumatra (Indonesia), Borneo (Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia) and nearby small islands. The species is near threatened and vulnerable to habitat degradation, and it has probably been extirpated in Singapore where the last sighting was in 1995. Reported sightings in Vietnam in 1984 are considered to be dubious.

The cream-coloured giant squirrel is one of the largest squirrels. It has a head–and–body length of 31–38 cm (1 ft 0 in – 1 ft 3 in), a tail length of 37–44 cm (1 ft 3 in – 1 ft 5 in) and weighs 875–1,500 g (1.929–3.307 lb). On average, adults of both sexes have a head–and–body length of about 34 cm (1 ft 1 in) and tail length of 42 cm (1 ft 5 in), while females weight about 1,250 g (2.76 lb) and males 1,050 g (2.31 lb).

As suggested by its name, the cream-coloured giant squirrel is typically overall cream to very light orangish-brown, while the underparts are whitish-cream. In Borneo and nearby small islands where it is the only Ratufa giant squirrel, some populations resemble cream-coloured giant... Wikipedia →