Giant Squirrels

Near to my office in Weeraketiya I sometimes see giant squirrels. These are not people dressed in furry costumes promoting peanuts, but are in fact a huge variant on the regular kind of squirrels we have back home, and cousins to the pint-sized Sri Lankan palm squirrel.

Palm squirrels are seen anywhere with trees in Sri Lanka, particularly parks and gardens, and are easy to spot due to their distinctive stripy backs and loud chirruping when alarmed.

Here is one I caught snacking on a half coconut left out to dry in the sun in our garden.














Giant squirrels however are much less common. Normally you only see their dark shadow leaping from the top of one tree to another.

My colleague at work was therefore a little surprised to find one - only a few days old - lying on her driveway. It had evidently fallen from the nest high in the trees, and been rejected by its mother. The family's kids have been looking after it, feeding it pineapple and other fruits, and it is doing well.

At just a week or two old it was already competing with the UK's grey squirrels for size, and once fully grown it will probably be around 80cms from nose to tail!















Anyway, as it was still only small and hadn't got a full set of claws yet, I was happy for it to perch on my shoulder for a while...