Horsfield’s Flying Squirrel feeding on Ficus glandulifera, Beluran, Sabah

Horsfield’s Flying Squirrel Iomys horsfieldi feeding on the unripe figs of Ficus glandulifera.

Horsfield’s Flying Squirrel is one of two common small flying squirrels with generalist habits in Borneo. In Peninsula Malaya. I. horsfieldi is more common in secondary forest and orchards than in primary forest. This particular individual was photographed in a small fig tree next to the roadside in the Trusan Sugud Forest Reserve near Beluran in east central Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.

Muul, I., and Lim, B.L. (1978) Comparative food habits Flying Squirrels

According to Muul and Lim (1978)

We have seen encounters between one of the most common fruit bats, Cynopterus, and one of the most common flying squirrels, Iomys, while both were feeding in fruiting fig trees at night.

Curiously, the alarm calls of Cynopterus and Iomys are nearly identical, a sort of 2-note bugling. It is tempting to speculate on the survival value of this convergent call in these markedly unrelated mammals, which appear often to share feeding sites at the same time.

All photos courtesy of Gary Albert.