Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Rodentia > Sciuridae > Ratufa > Ratufa macroura

Ratufa macroura (Sri Lankan giant squirrel)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

The grizzled giant squirrel (Ratufa macroura) is a large tree squirrel in the genus Ratufa found in the highlands of the Central and Uva provinces of Sri Lanka, and in patches of riparian forest along the Kaveri River and in the hill forests of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala states of southern India. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the species as near threatened due to habitat loss and hunting. It is the national animal of Sri Lanka. Grizzled Squirrel Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Shenbagathoppu, Srivilliputtur, Tamil Nadu, India.
View Wikipedia Record: Ratufa macroura

Infraspecies

Ratufa macroura dandolena
Ratufa macroura macroura
Ratufa macroura melanochra

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
5
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
38
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 11.47
EDGE Score: 3.22
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  2.822 lbs (1.28 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  14 grams
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Frugivore, Granivore, Herbivore
Diet - Fruit [3]  30 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  10 %
Diet - Plants [3]  20 %
Diet - Seeds [3]  30 %
Diet - Vertibrates [3]  10 %
Forages - Arboreal [3]  100 %
Female Maturity [2]  1 year 1 month
Male Maturity [2]  11 months 23 days
Gestation [2]  30 days
Litter Size [2]  3
Litters / Year [2]  2
Maximum Longevity [2]  16 years
Snout to Vent Length [2]  16 inches (41 cm)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Eravikulam National Park II 39436 Kerala, India
Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve 1364022 India  
Sinharaja Forest Reserve IV 16201 Sri Lanka  
Wilpattu National Park II 320298 Sri Lanka  

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Western Ghats and Sri Lanka India, Sri Lanka No

Prey / Diet

Artocarpus nobilis[4]
Coscinium fenestratum[4]
Cullenia zeylanica[4]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Ictinaetus malayensis (Black Eagle)[5]

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Felisa A. Smith, S. Kathleen Lyons, S. K. Morgan Ernest, Kate E. Jones, Dawn M. Kaufman, Tamar Dayan, Pablo A. Marquet, James H. Brown, and John P. Haskell. 2003. Body mass of late Quaternary mammals. Ecology 84:3403
♦ 2Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4IDENTIFYING DIURNAL AND NOCTURNAL FRUGIVORES IN THE TERRESTRIAL AND ARBOREAL LAYERS OF A TROPICAL RAIN FOREST IN SRI LANKA, Palitha Jayasekara, Udayani Rose Weerasinghe, Siril Wijesundara & Seiki Takatsuki, ECOTROPICA 13: 7–15, 2007
♦ 5del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0