Carolina northern flying squirrel : North Carolina wildlife profiles

Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel North Carolina Wildlife Profiles Jonathan Mays Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus coloratus) The Carolina northern flying squirrel is one of two species of flying squirrel in North Carolina (the other is the southern flying squirrel). Contrary to their name, flying squirrels do not truly fly. Rather, they leap from trees using their powerful hindquarters, stretch out their limbs, and glide to the ground or nearby trees. A cape of skin that stretches from their wrists to their ankles, called a patagium, acts as a wing-like surface as they glide downwards. Flying squirrels drop about a foot for every three feet of forward glide. Description The flying squirrel’s most distinctive feature is its patagium. Carolina northern flying squirrels have bright cinnamon- brown fur dorsally, gray fur around the face and the end of the tail, and bicolored fur on the belly (gray at the base and creamy white at the tip of each hair). The squirrel has a long, flat, furred tail. The Carolina northern flying squirrel resembles the smaller, more common southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) but is nearly twice as large. While there is some elevational overlap in their range between 4,000 to 5,000 feet, Carolina northern flying squirrels are restricted to the highest elevations while southern flying squirrels are found most commonly at lower elevations. History and Status Biologists first discovered the Carolina northern flying squirrel in North Car- olina in the early 1950s. When the federal government listed it as Endangered in 1985, funds became available to study its distribution. This species inhabits eight mountain ranges in North Carolina: Long Elope, Roan, Grandfather, and the Black- Craggy Mountains north and east of the French Broad River Basin, and Great Balsam, Plott Balsam, Smoky, and Unicoi Mountains south and west of the French Broad River Basin. Recently, it has been documented in a ninth mountain range, Unaka Mountain. For more information on this species, including status and any applicable regula¬ tions, visit www.ncwildlife.org/NorthernFlyingSquirrel. Habitats & Habits The Carolina northern flying squirrel inhabits the boreal and deciduous forests of North Carolina’s highest mountains. It prefers a mix of conifers (red spruce, Fraser fir, Eastern hemlock) and northern hardwood trees (yellow birch, buckeye, sugar maple). It forages in the conifers and dens in hardwood trees. Dens are found in live and dead Contrary to their name, flying squirrels do not truly fly; they jump off trees and glide down on folds of outstretched skin JT Newman Range and Distribution The northern flying squirrel is found across Canada and the northern United States, its range extending southward in the mountain chains of North America. North Carolina is the southern extent of this species in east¬ ern North America, with the Carolina sub¬ species distributed in the highest mountains of western North Carolina, east Tennessee, and southwest Virginia. It had a wider range during glacial times, when boreal forest was much more extensive. Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel Range Map