Giant squirrel. Maybe you have never heard the name of this animal. This animal is one type of large squirrel that lives in several regions of the world. There are many types of squirrels in the Giant Squirrel family. One of the most common is the Indian Giant Squirrel.
For those of you who don’t know, actually Giant Squirrel is one of all pet animals that you can keep at home. Giant squirrel or Malabar giant squirrel large tree squirrel species in the genus Ratufa native to India. Indian Giant Squirrel has two tone fur color while the color is creamy-beige, buff, tan, rust, brown, or even a dark seal brown. The underparts and the front legs are usually cream coloured, the head can be brown or beige, however there is a distinctive white spot between the ears. For adult, the length from head to body is around 36 cm and the tail length is approximately 0.61 m, and their weight is around 2 kg.
Indian Giant Squirrels are a type of animal that inhabits tall tree. They will spend most of their time in the tree without going down to the ground. Besides spending time on tree, they also transport through there. They will move from one tree to another through swing and leap. They are able to jump up to a height of 6 meters to move of tree. When in danger, the Indian Giant Squirrel often freezes or flattens itself against the tree trunk, instead of fleeing. Their main predators are the birds of prey and the leopard. This squirrel is nocturnal so they are active during midnight and sleep when the sun is come.
They are typically solitary animals that only come together for breeding. Indian Giant Squirrel usually lives for alone or in pairs. They build large globular nests of twigs and leaves and placing them on thinner branches where large predators can’t get to them. These nests become conspicuous in deciduous forests during the dry season. An individual may build several nests in a small area of forest which are used as sleeping quarters, with one being used as a nursery. Talking about food, their diet includes fruit, flowers, nuts and tree bark. Some subspecies are omnivorous, also eating insects and bird eggs.
It isn’t strange for someone to want to keep something. As long as it doesn’t violate the law and doesn’t torture them, keeping an animal is allowed and so does pet Indian Gian Squirrel. Before you decide to pet them. You better check out something below.
- They are nocturnal
Indian Giant Squirrel is nocturnal. They will more active when the night come. If you still force them to become your pet, of course this will disturb your sleep. They will be noisy and run around here and there because the hours when you are inactive is active hours for them. Your rest time will be disturbed, that’s for sure. This might not apply to those of you who have a habit of nocturnal life, but what about your neighbors? Isn’t this quite disturbing for them too? To solve this, you might be able to separate their enclosures from the location of your room. But is it effective when you don’t have a large area of land? Think back about this because maybe the only thing that is bothered is you but others.
- They need high tree
According to their habit, Indian Giant Squirrel spend their time in trees and pass from one tree to another through swings. This is their basic habit that can’t be changed. If you want to look after them, make sure you have tall trees in your backyard. If you are unable to provide this, don’t expect them to return to your home after swinging here and there in the trees. They also form nest in tree, so it is important for you to provide them with large, lush and tall tree if they want to keep them at home. Design their cages exactly the same as their original life in the wild. Of course, planting trees to make them big and tall takes time, right? Beside that, making the ecosystem as close as possible to their original life also requires a large budget, right? It is important for you to provide time and budget to maintain them.
Maintaining an animal might change their natural behavior, but changing their basic behavior just for personal pleasure isn’t a commendable thing. Therefore, there is no point in maintaining animals that are unruly and incompatible with the condition of your home. If you choose to modify your home as a form of adaptation to your pet, that is your choice. But forcing animals that are supposed to be free to live in your ‘confinement’ doesn’t make them beneficial to you.
After reading some of the points above, have you changed your mind?