As I have posted elsewhere, we raise Flying Squirrels (glaucomys volans) and Chipmunks (tamias striatus). Our oldest flyers will be nine this spring- they can live up to fifteen years! I do educational presentations at local nature centers with the Flyers, I use a ten-foot tall tripod with a perch on top, and they will fly to me, gliding like a paper airplane.

Flying Squirrels: Spook, Bumper, Elvis, Fingo and Clover. Flying Squirrels were popular pets with school children in 1700's colonial New England.

Chipmunks: Sedona & Hoover

Here is a pic of Hoover & Elvis together, the flyer's fur is incredibly soft, like a Chinchilla. The Chipmunk has much coarser fur, it feels more like a dog.




We also enjoy wild Flying Squirrels at our bird feeder- They show up every night (they are nocturnal). This is a wild Flyer on our maple tree, you can clearly see the edge of the "wing":