The Scampering Giant - Black Giant Squirrel

Pics : 1 - 6 & 9 - 14 : Kaziranga National Park | Pics : 7 - 8 & 15 - 16 : Manas National Park

Sometimes, like that first time for us, you could be driving around the outskirts of a reserve and run into something that you never really thought existed so close to home. My wife saw him first as we were driving down the highway, with Burapahar range of Kaziranga National Park to one side and yelled, “ What’s that? What’s that? What’s that?” It was bigger than a cat but nothing about its behavior was feline in any way. Well, we were on our way back from the reserve so the kit had to be grabbed to see what was crawling around the tree and that’s how we met one of the largest squirrels in the world, the near threatened, Black Giant Squirrel (Malayan Giant Squirrel) and we didn’t see another one for years until my visit to Manas last month

Ratufa bicolor’s the name and he’s a Giant alright (for a squirrel). His kind are seldom seen these days and he really did make my first experience watching a squirrel rather special. Didn’t take me long to figure out that he was a squirrel cause he was doing everything I’d seen on TV. Just that this guy was so big that he had me flabbergasted and he was black and white. It was hard for me to fit all of him in one frame while catching him doing his thing given how his tail, which was longer than his body would move and lash about. Getting a clear shot of all of him with the foliage around was quite the challenge and I think I did manage a few while at other times, I had to be content with just targeting his actions. My guy was foraging and behaving totally like how they show you in the cartoons. Sniffing, taking a few steps up the branch, then checking things around again before stepping up again. His progress around was pretty fast given the detailed ritualistic nature of his movements. He was a squirrel through and through and I guess no one told him that he’s a Giant among Squirrels.

Well, turns out that these guys can weigh over1.5 kg. Their bodies get upto like 50 cms length while the tail itself can get to around 60 cms. In comparison, the palm squirrels we usually see around in India get upto 40 cm length including the tail and can weigh 200 grams max. They range from Nepal, Bangladesh, North East India and Southern China all the way to Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. India has other Giant Squirrels but these guys are mostly restricted to the North East. Despite their huge range, these poor guys have lost about 30 percent of their population globally in the last 10 years. At this rate, it’s predicted that we will lose them in India by 2050.

So, these guys are among the squirrels that build their own nests which are called Dreys. They prefer to stay in the trees and live a rather solitary life unless dreying with one or two young uns. These dreys, are often in tree hollows or could be like large nests up in a tree. They are so elusive that we’ve figured out the mating and social systems of birds in the trees that they’re in but we still are unsure about their mating systems, social structures and interactions. My Giant leapt effortlessly (in a single jump) from the tree the photos are from to the next and was away in a jiffy when he realized that we were watching and fussing about him down below and that was the sudden end of that sadly

I really wanted another go at these guys with my new cam set up and that wish finally came true last month at Manas 2 years later. Now Manas is a different ball game to Kazi altogether. It’s a lot denser and just like the Horbill, The Black Giant Squirrel was not a rare find here. Not only that, just like the Hornbill, they were a lot more at ease in this thick vegetation. Sure, their movements were just the same but their numbers made them a lot more at ease I recon and I even spotted one of these guys fast asleep on a branch close to the road. Their confidence around their environment finally gave me the eye contact portraits that I had wanted since that day in May 2 years ago.

The Black Giant Squirrel taught me to keep my eyes open around the forest crossings and edges and that’s something I do no matter where I’m headed to even without a camera on me. You just never know and the RAW feature on the phone will be tested someday I hope.