Black Giant Squirrel

RATUFA BICOLOR

Living in Southern Asia the Black Giant is the largest of the squirrels. It lives in temperate forests and is possibly endangered although science isn’t quite certain due to its secretive behavior

The Black Giant has a coat that is pale yellow on its underbelly and is black on the top, has short round ears and very wide feet with strong claws on them.

The giant Black is the largest member of the squirrel family

It can reach as long as a foot and half in length and weigh up to about five pounds,.Living a solitary life for the most part, they will at times live in pairs.
They are arboreal in nature, meaning that they live most of their lives in the trees, feeding there are fruit, bark, bugs and sometimes the eggs of birds, making it omnivorous. IT will at times go onto coffee, banana or fig plantations and make raids for food there.
THe Black giant only very rarely comes to the ground and if it does that is usually to chase away another black giant, defending its territory or to pursue a female in heat..

When it mates, usually in the springtime, it will build a very large nest, close to the size of the nests of eagles or hawks and rear its young there.
Usually giving birth to just one or two babies, after a gestation period of a little over a months time.