The Squirrel Station: Weekly Squirrel- The Indian Giant Purple

This weeks squirrel is... the Indian Giant Purple (Ratufa Indica)!

Description

The Indian Giant Purple is, as their name says, purple. Their back is varying shades of purple and their legs and underside are yellow/orange. The tip of their tail is yellow, and they have a thin yellow stripe going down it. Their face is usually the same color as their underside. They are very big (Hence the word "Giant" in their name). Their body is about a foot long, and their tail is 2 feet long.

Range

The Indian Giant Purple squirrel has also been called the Malabar Giant Squirrel, for the reason that it mainly lives in the Malabar Region of India. Its name looks like this: शेकरू in Hindi, which is one of the many languages of India. The Indian Giant Squirrel lives in many different, spread out regions in India. Each region of these squirrels has a different color scheme. In Gavi, Pathanamthitta district, Kerala, they are a black-purple color. They like to live in deciduous, mixed deciduous, and moist evergreen forests, which are native to India. They will live as far North as the Satpura hill range of Madhya Pradesh.

Diet

The Indian Giant Purple's diet consists of multiple varieties of fruit, depending on where they live. They are omnivores, and also eat bugs and small animals.

Behavior

The Indian Giant Purple is a diurnal (meaning it is up and about during the day) and arboreal (tree-dwelling), like most squirrels. It hops from one tree to the next with leaps reaching the distance of up to 6 meters (20 feet). They like tall trees with lots of branches for their nests. Their main predators are the Birds of Prey and the Leopard. Like nearly all squirrels, the Indian Giant Purple is born hairless, sightless, and deaf.