Black giant squirrel
species of black giant squirrel
The black giant squirrel or Malayan giant squirrel (Ratufa bicolor) is a large tree squirrel in the genus Ratufa native to the Indomalayan zootope. It is found in forests from northern Bangladesh, northeast India, eastern Nepal, Bhutan, southern China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, West Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and western Indonesia (Java, Sumatra, Bali and nearby small islands).
Description
The black giant squirrel is one of the largest species of squirrel in the world. On average, an adult black giant squirrel weighs around 1.05–1.25 kg (2.3–2.8 lb), has a head–and–body length of 34–37 cm (13–15 in), and the tail is 41–42 cm (16–17 in) long. The subspecies R. b. condorensis of Vietnam's Côn Sơn Island averages only c. 30 cm (12 in) in head–and–body length and the tail 32 cm (13 in), but otherwise it resembles the typical subspecies.
This species is typically distinctly bicoloured with dark upperparts and pale underparts. The back, top of the head, ears and bushy tail are deep brown to black and the underparts are light buff-coloured. In Sumatra, Java and Bali the hairs of the back and tail are light-tipped, making these sections appear relatively pale (however, the upperparts, especially the thighs and shoulders, are still distinctly darker than the underparts).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Black giant squirrel” as species of black giant squirrel. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q917916. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Black giant squirrel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.