03/03/2023
The animal of the year 2023 is Flying squirrel.
The Flying squirrel is a nocturnal animal and there are very few people who have seen Flying squirrels in Estonian nature with their own eyes. Until the end of the last century, the Flying squirrel was known only as an inhabitant of remote primeval forests, which only a few had met. They were mostly seen when cutting down nesting trees.
In recent years, those animals have been talked about or mentioned quite often in the media.
The habitats of Flying squirrels are old forests with hollow aspens, where hundreds of other, often less noticeable, endangered and protected forest species live together with Flying squirrels.
On the other hand, these forests are mature in terms of forestry. Of course, we do not find such concepts about communities in ecology
and thus the protection of natural forest biome and intensive forest management are in inevitable conflict. This is how the Flying squirrel has become one of the symbols of Estonian nature conservation in both good and bad light.
Possibilities for the protection and at the same time management of the forests that are the habitat of the Lendorava are sought and introduced in the joint Finnish-Estonian LIFE project "Lendorav" (officially called "Co-operation for improving the conservation of the Flying squirrel in Europe", LIFE17 NAT/FI), which is already running for the fifth year /000469) within. In the process, knowledge about Flying squirrels as well as practical experience to solve different situations both in Estonia and Finland will be improved.
Flying squirrel do not hibernate. They have prepared at least 3-4 safe shelters in their home area for the winter. These are mostly nest cavities built by the Great Spotted Woodpecker, where beard and fringe lichens and sometimes other material have been brought as nest material.
Why lichens? If the animal breathes in the cavity in cold weather, condensation water forms there. Straws, mosses, animal hairs, feathers, which are used by birds as nesting material, get wet, but lichen absorbs a large amount of water between its tissues. In this way, the Flying squirrel's nest remains dry and warm.
Several shelters are necessary so that if something should happen to one of the nests, or if a squirrel has found a cavity too often in use by Pine Marten (Martes martes), the Flying squirrel will move to another, safer nest.
Birch and alder burrows are the main winter food. In forests where hazels also grow, so do their burrows. Flying squirrels also make smaller food stores in some cavities or nest boxes, where they usually bring alder urbs. They are used in more extreme weather conditions.
Flying squirrels are territorial animals, especially females. The size of the home range of one female animal is 8 to 15 hectares. As a rule, however, the suitable nesting forests at the sites are so small that one or two, in the best case, up to three females can live there.
For the most part, the Flying squirrel has two to three cubs, who at some point have to move out of their birth home and find free territory for themselves. Female cubs have to find a new territory. The home territory of males can be more than 100 hectares, because they move around the home territories of different females.
In 2022, 96 Flying Squirrel habitats were identified, of which 14 were new. According to the information of the Environmental Agency and the Environmental Board, there are a total of 162 airstrip sites in Estonia entered in the register, and life activities have been identified in 96 places last year.
Uudo Timm, who has been studied Flying squirrels for more than 30 years:
"I've always said that Flying squirrels are horrible creatures and dangerous animals. They carry a horrible disease - under no circumstances should you look them in the eye, if you do, you are a lost soul and probably only the grave will save you.
It happened to me that way, I saw, I looked into their eyes, and now I spend all my free time and as much as possible professionally worrying about their progress, studying them and being with them. Again and again, I travel between the "Far East" of Estonia to see how these bulging eyes are doing there."
Source (in Estonian): Looduskalender, Keskkonnaagentuur
Video: Uudo Timm
