Flying squirrels are the most common squirrel in the eastern US, but most people have never seen one. That’s because flying squirrels are nocturnal animals that do not actually fly, but rather glide from tree to tree, spending little time on the ground. There are two species of flying squirrels in the eastern US – the common southern flying squirrel and the less common northern flying squirrel.
Endangered in southern portions of their range in the Carolinas, the larger northern flying squirrel prefers areas with conifers on larger unbroken tracts of land. In our region, northern flying squirrels have been documented in the Catskills and northwest Connecticut. The historic range of northern flying squirrels includes the Mianus River Gorge and its remnant old-growth conifer forest … are northern flying squirrels still in the Gorge? That is the question WTP student Daisy Lamb of Irvington High School has set out to answer.
In the first year of her study, Daisy installed remote cameras and acoustic recorders at sites across the Preserve to see if southern and northern flying squirrels could be identified by sight and sound. Although she observed many flying squirrels, she has not been able to determine if they are the northern or southern species. This fall, in the second year of her study, Daisy will collect flying squirrel DNA from baited platforms and use eDNA to definitively determine which species occupy the Mianus River Gorge. If we find that the northern flying squirrel is indeed present, this important research could help focus future stewardship and land acquisition efforts to effectively conserve them.
