Derby's Anomalure

Fascinating facts about the Derby's Anomalure

• Flights of up to 250 meters (820 feet) have been recorded. One incredible glide of A. derbianus was seen to cover 100 meters, and another was reported to have gone 250 meters! The animal launches from a high branch, stretches its hairy membrane, and swoops down like a living parachute. This extreme range lets it escape predators and reach food without ever touching the forest floor, highlighting how vital uninterrupted canopy is for its survival.
• When it lands, the squirrel's tail becomes a built-in brake. When a Lord Derby's flying squirrel alights on a lower tree trunk, it thrusts the scales on the underside of its tail into the bark of the tree, using them as an "antiskidding" device. The scales are also used as an aid in climbing up the rough bark of trees. By anchoring with these overlapping scales, the animal can pull itself upward or hold steady on slick trunks. This adaptation lets it navigate the vertical world with precision, reducing the risk of a dangerous slip in the dense canopy.
• Despite its squirrel-like look, this rodent is built for the sky. Anomalurus derbianus are squirrel-like in form and have a head-body length of 27-37.9 cm. Their tail is approximately 22-28.4 centimeters in length. The fur is silvery-grey on its dorsal side, with the ends of individual hairs brushed in white, while the belly is dense and completely white. These color markings blend well against the background of a tree.
• Females, possessing one pair of teats, have two litters of 1-3 young per year; the gestation period is unknown. At birth, babies are large and completely covered with fur, their eyes are open, and they begin to move around soon after birth. However, the young remain hidden in the nest until almost fully grown.
• The squirrel inhabits a swath of Africa as wide as a continent. Lord Derby's scaly-tailed squirrel lives in tropical and subtropical rainforests in western and central Africa. It is found in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia
• Animal Diversity Web

At a glance

About the Derby's Anomalure

In the lush, vibrant forests of central Africa, a most singular creature stirs, the Derby's Anomalure, its large, round eyes shining like lanterns in the dappled gloom as it glides effortlessly through the trees, its long, slender body undulating with each powerful stroke of its membrane. With a gentle whoosh, it launches itself into the air, its patagium, a thin skin membrane, billowing out like a sail to carry it soaring across the forest canopy, a true marvel of evolutionary ingenuity. As it moves, the Anomalure's soft, grey-brown fur blends seamlessly into the shadows, rendering it all but invisible, a ghostly apparition haunting the treetops.

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