Flying Squirrels: Early observations

The Southern Flying Squirrel was one of the more curious animals depicted in the work of the Nuremberg miniaturist Johann Daniel Meyer. Between 1748 and 1756 he published his three volume work Angenehmer und nützlicher Zeit-vertreib mit Betrachtung curioser Vorstellungen allerhand kriechender, fliegender und schwimmender, auf dem Land und im Wasser sich befindender und nährender Thiere — ‘A pleasant and useful pastime of viewing with curiouser performances all kinds of crawling, flying and swimming animals, on land and in water’.

For some years, reports had come back of the Giant Flying Squirrels found in the East Indies. In 1766, the German zoologist and botanist Peter Simon Pallas referred to it in his Miscellanea Zoologica: Quibus novæ imprimis atque obscuræ animalium species describuntur et observationibus iconibusque illustrantur — ‘Miscellaneous zoological observations from which new, unique and obscure animal species are described with observations and peculiarities illustrated’. Pallas gave descriptions of several vertebrates new to science, including Sciurus petaurista or ‘Acrobatic Squirrel’. Pallas wrote:

This unique and, to this point, usually famous species among squirrels can be found at several zoos. Using its wide body and thick wing-flaps, which stretch between its front feet and its rear thighs, helping it to spread wide, transporting the animal beside and above the treetops, it moves from one tree to another, as if it is floating in the air. Sciuri volantis [‘flying squirrel’] is the name hitherto accepted for this little animal, which is commonly found in the northern Asian and American regions and described many times.

This squirrel, to which I now ascribe this accurate description, is not particularly similar to others (of its species); it has extended webbing between its feet, but, and most importantly, it is noteworthy in that, more than all others of its species, it can fly above, far and wide. It is very rare to come across one which is far from the leader of its group; and it is also known but uncommon to come upon them, among the leaves on an Indian Ocean island, where very few close observations have been made, and it is also very rare for these animals to live there.

Pallas based his observations on collections he found in the Dutch museum and the writings of François Valentijn, a Dutch minister, naturalist and author, who had spent 16 years in the Dutch East Indies. In 1685, at the age of 19, Valentijn was employed by the Dutch East India Company as Minister to the East Indies, where he became a friend of the German naturalist Georg Eberhard Rumphius. He returned and lived in Holland for about 10 years before returning to the Indies in 1705 where he was to serve as Army Chaplain on an expedition in eastern Java. He finally returned to Holland where he published his Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën (Old and New East-India) (1724–26) a massive work of five parts published in eight volumes and containing over 1000 illustrations and including some of the most accurate maps of the Indies of the time.

Valentijn’s reputed ‘theft’ of the work of other scientists and writers and his passing it off as his own did not escape the notice of Peter Simon Pallas, who had a planned voyage to southern Africa and the East Indies which, to his dismay, did not eventuate.

Valentijn who, whatever defects he may have, has however many good talents — and his innate skills encourage my own efforts — omits to mention any actual sighting of this species of squirrel. Yet he delights in introducing it, however rambling or with minimal accurate detail, as it appears to be the most intelligent of the squirrels and he includes an illustrated account of this very rare animal. ... On [the island of] Gilolo he says, around the township of Dodingo, it is named the flying Civet. This vespertinal animal has wings stretched between its front and hind feet with which it moves from one tree to another. Furthermore they have a very long tail, very much like that of the Cercopithecus [the Egyptian long-tailed ape]. When these animals feel safe, their wings are not evident. ... It is barely fifty years since this species became known, for they are very wild and most timid. They have a reddish head with a mixture of dark-coloured hair. With their wings extended, and displaying their ‘raiment’ of hair, they scatter during the evening. Using their powerful teeth and with very little difficulty, they hide out each night in their wooden cave. By some it is called the flying Cercopithecus, but it is certainly considered to be in fact our flying squirrel.

In 1774, the German naturalist Johann Christian Daniel Schreber began writing a multi-volume set of books on the world’s mammals entitled Die Säugethiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen. This work proved important because many of the animals included were given a scientific name for the first time, following the binomial system which Carl Linnaeus had established in 1758. Schreber’s book included illustrations of ‘Sciuris volans’ (= Pteromys volans) and ‘Sciurus petaurista’ (= Petaurista petaurista) which had been described by Linnaeus and Pallas respectively.

In 1801, the English botanist and zoologist George Shaw made some detailed observations of the Siberian Flying Squirrel: