The northern flying squirrel is facing pressure on its habitat and is being considered for listing as an endangered or threatened species by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

Ongoing field research funded by the Pennsylvania Game Commission and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined the state's northern flying squirrels are uncharacteristically sharing habitat - even nesting quarters - with their look-alike cousin, the southern flying squirrel.

That may mean trouble for northerns, which already are in short supply in Pennsylvania and furthered threatened by the European wooly adelgid, an insect that has been devouring the state's hemlock tree stands, the preferred habitat of northerns.

The big problem with northerns and southerns sharing habitat and living quarters, according to the fieldwork - a State Wildlife Grants Program (SWG) project - is a parasite called Strongyloides robustus that is carried by southerns and can be lethal to northerns. The parasite poses no threat to the southern, but it seems to suppress the northern's ability to put on winter fat, and to even maintain its existing weight.

Northern flying squirrels, which are slightly larger than southerns, have been sort of an enigmatic species to biologists for decades. Their presence in the state has been recognized for some time. But given their extremely limited distribution and nocturnal lifestyle, it's not hard to understand why northern flying squirrels have not garnered much attention over the years from wildlife managers, outdoors writers or those who frequent the state's northern woods.

For some time now, the Game Commission staff biologists and members of the Pennsylvania Biological Survey's Mammal Technical Committee have contemplated the possibility of listing the northern flying squirrel as an endangered or threatened species.

Dr. Michael Steele of Wilkes University, Dr. Carolyn Mahan of Penn State University's Altoona campus; and Greg Turner, formerly a Wilkes University researcher and now a Game Commission endangered species biologist, all recommended elevating the status of the northern flying squirrel from its current designation as a "protected mammal" to a threatened or an endangered species in their SWG Program-funded research paper, titled "A Manual for Long-Term Monitoring and Management of the Threatened Northern Flying Squirrel in Pennsylvania."

As a direct result of the SWG northern flying squirrel fieldwork, the PBS's Mammal Technical Committee has asked the Game Commission to consider listing northerns as an endangered species, a two-step action that would need to be taken up by the agency's Board of Game Commissioners. The Game Commission's Bureau of Wildlife Management has asked consequently for more information and additional fieldwork to qualify the recommendation.

The flying squirrel does not fly; it is a glider. Using fur-covered membrane that runs from just above the paw on the front leg to the ankle on the rear leg on each side, the squirrel will jump from a tree and glide downward to a lower location. Flying squirrels use their tail and legs to maneuver while in flight. Unless aided by the wind, squirrels cannot glide upward.

NewsClip: Bullwinkle I’m worried

State’s Flying Squirrels in Danger

10/22/2004