දඬු ලේනා[Dandu Lena]/Giant squirrel (Ratufa macroura)
Giant squirrel is distributed throughout the island in suitable habitats as three different subspecies. Wet zone and highland subspecies have blackish brown to jet black above with totally black or ‘frosted with white’ tail, while dry zone subspecies has grizzled grey or brown upper parts with heavily frosted tail. They are diurnal and arboreal, always live in forests or near by villages with some trees. Its diet consists of leaves, barks and young twigs and shoots of trees and also wild fruits, berries and nuts in their seasons. It is said that insects, grubs and occasionally bird eggs are also included in its food. They build their nests among branches of tall tree within its territory demarcated by a solitary squirrel or a pair, using small branches and twigs. Usually they build 3-4 nests and use them both for sleeping and bringing forth young.
One of my favorite animals.We have a few of them in our neighborhood over here. I've posted two videos I made of them in my blog. I think it's the dry zone subspecies that we see around here.
ReplyDeleteNorthern boundary of wet zone subspecies is considered as Kegalla area. Sow what you see in your area should be dry zone subspecies also shown in above picture.
ReplyDeleteAmila
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile I checked your videos and noticed its dark color upper parts of the body unlike this one. So it may be considered as a result of mixing up of dry zone and wet zone subspecies which often happen in intermediate zone. Seasonal color changes among dry zone subspecies due to bleaching of dark coat -which appearing early in the year- and later on becoming light brown due to strong sunlight is also reported and wearing of long hairs also contributed to this seasonal change of color.
Now that's interesting. Yes that could be the case,Kurunegala is considered to belong to intermediate zone.
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ReplyDeleteMohomed Nazlan - It is illegal of rearing wild animals and also you must keep in mind that I am not a pet trader. This blog is for conservationists and nature lovers and not for pet sellers.
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