In my continuing series of ‘animals that pokemon were based on,’ we need to talk about the emolga. Because I need an overdose of cuteness today.
Oh, and we’ll end up talking about Florida Man, because I also need a laugh.
Today’s Moment of Science… airborne squirrels.
About twenty million years ago, one species of squirrel with a dream and a song in its heart split off from the rest of the squirrel family. From that one descended the fifty or so species of flying squirrel that have been identified to date. With the scientific name of Pteromyini, they’re found throughout North America and Asia with some scattered in Central America and Eastern Europe. There are three species of flying squirrel in North America, and because they weren’t enough of a fucking delight already, they fluoresce pink.
The diversity of the squirrels is stunning. While dwarf flying squirrels out of Borneo are just 2-4 inches long, the red giant flying squirrel from India can grow up to two feet, weigh 7lbs, and glide for about 1,500 feet uninterrupted. At just 8-12 inches, the varieties of flying squirrel we find in North America have been recorded traveling about 300 feet in one leap. This brings up an interesting point: flying squirrels aren’t so much flying as they are gliding.
But ‘gliding squirrels’ sounded lame, so.
A membrane called the patagia acts as a built-in, steerable parachute. They tend to jump down at about a 30° angle, so traveling long distances is an act of climb, glide, repeat until they get to their destination. The little fuckers were BASE jumpers before BASE jumping was a thing.
So since traits are often passed on because they confer some evolutionary advantage, what did these giant leaps do for squirrelkind? There are few theories. One is that it allowed them to travel over large distances to search for food. Another is that they were able to make a quick escape when shenanigans started in their tree. There’s no good reason for squirrels to have developed this ability, but twenty million years of genetic drift will give you some fancy ass squirrels.
Despite having several similarities, these guys are not on the same branch of the tree of life as sugar gliders. Squirrels are rodents, which are placental mammals. Sugar gliders, as are so many of Australia’s more delightful critters, are marsupials. Their common features, like the patagia, are stunning examples of convergent evolution.
Though behavior varies species to species, flying squirrels can be found in groups of up to fifty in their hidey holes in trees and nests. Larger numbers roosting together is more typical in the winter, likely for warmth. With predators that include owls, hawks, foxes, weasels, bobcats, and snakes, it’s no surprise that they typically live five years in the wild but up to thirteen in captivity.
So should you get one and give it a nice long life?
They’re illegal in ten states, they bite super hard, and in 2019 the country’s biggest flying squirrel smuggling ring was busted. The person at the center of it bred turtles, alligators, flying squirrels, and was none other than Florida Man.
Pokemon or not, don’t try to catch ‘em all. Leave the flying squirrels the fuck alone to glide in peace.
This has been your Moment of Science, desperately waiting to catch a few more bidoofs.
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