Comments on: Not Palm Civet But Flying Squirrel, Scientists Say

By: beldengiman

beldengiman — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 07:05:38 +0000

I saw Thomas’s Flying squirrel couple of times and its tail is far… far shorter than the ‘New Bornean Carnivore”’s tail. So… it is not an Aeromys thomasi or Petaurista petaurista because Red Giant Flying Squirrel has distinct black tip at the end of its tail.

The other photo is definitely Hose’s Civet (diplogale hosei). No question about that.

By: I_M_NOT_A_Yarwen

I_M_NOT_A_Yarwen — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 23:53:27 +0000

Come on guys…this is obviously a midget in a lemur-suit pulling a hoax to promote his new documentary….’Johar Chipmunk’! (Humour botton ‘ON’).

Cute little fellow, whatever it is. Borneo must be such a bizzare and wonderful place.

By: daledrinnon

daledrinnon — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 13:22:40 +0000

From what I can tell, I would opt for the civet explanation, I do not see strong evidence for the gliding membrane in the best photograph and the tail looks more like the civet’s tail to me.

This is not to say that I do not also suspect the presence of a large animal like a flying squirrel as big as a domestic cat in the area from other sources: Shuker seems to have slight evidence along those lines from historical accounts in India.

By: KarcassticMangoose

KarcassticMangoose — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 07:54:57 +0000

Whatever it may be, it is a beautiful creature, and hopefully will encourage field researchers to continue photo “trapping” even more in the future. Thanks for the update!