Laotian Giant Flying Squirrels Are Wild Discoveries in Food Markets

Summary: Laotian giant flying squirrels are wild discoveries available as poached bushmeat from National Biodiversity Conservation Areas for local food markets.

ventral view of female Laotian giant flying squirrel (Biswamoyopterus laoensis), adapted by Sci-News.com from Daosavanh Sanamxay et al. (2013): Sci-News.com: Breaking Science News @scinewscom, via Facebook Sept. 6, 2013

An article in Zootaxa July 15, 2013, by one scientist in England, two in Thailand and four in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) announces as wild discoveries Laotian giant flying squirrels.

Co-authors Paul J.J. Bates, Sara Bumrungsri, Bounsavane Douangboubpha, Daosavanh Sanamxay, Chutamas Satasook, Vilakhan Xayaphet and Sysouphanh Xayavong broach National Biodiversity Conservation Area animals that become bushmeat. Their article Rediscovery of Biswamoyopterus (Mammalia: Rodentia: Sciuridae: Pteromyini) in Asia, With the Description of a New Species From Lao PDR canvassed northern through southern Laos. National University of Laos researchers discerned a flying squirrel specimen of distinct colors, skull and teeth in Ban Thongnami, Pak Kading District, Bolikhamxai Province, central Laos.

Lead author Daosavanh Sanamxay and fellow Environmental Sciences faculty members Sysouphanh Xayavong and Vilakhan Xayaphet extracted an adult female specimen Sept. 22, 2012, from local markets.

The National University of Laos in Vientiane features their adult female specimen of Laotian giant flying squirrels as collection number FES.MM.12.163 dried skin and extracted skull.

Laotian giant flying squirrels such as the National University of Laos specimen get 17.91-inch (455-millimeter) head-body and 24.41-inch (620-millimeter) tail lengths and 63.49-ounce (1,800-gram) body masses. Their individual hairs hint of metallic ash from their bases 0.79 inches (20 millimeters) upward; 0.59-inch- (15-millimeter-) long red-brown middles; and 0.12-inch- (3-millimeter-) long black tips. Laotian giant flying squirrels, identified scientifically as Biswamoyopterus laoensis ("winged Biswami belonging to Laos") for Biswamoy Biswas (June 2, 1923-Aug. 10, 1994), impart dark-light, grizzled impressions.

The Pteromyini (from Greek πτερόν, "wing") and Sciuridae (from Greek σκιά, "shadow," οὐρά, "tail" and -ειδής, "-like") family member juggles body colors judicious for night hunts.

Laotian giant flying squirrels know grizzled, thick-haired black, gray, red-brown, white upper-sides and, with many definite but discontinuous black lines, grizzled, thick-haired gray, orange, white undersides.

Laotian giant flying squirrels look gray-white on their crowns and naked on their black-gray ears apart one black-, long-haired basal front-margin ear tuft and one rear-margin. They manifest large skulls with big eye sockets; close-aligned, large tympanic bullae ("hearing bubbles") whose 12-plus septae ("partitions") maintain complex honeycombed patterns; and short, wide muzzles. They net developed upper first and second molars and third premolars; larger upper fourth premolars than first molars; and yellow, not orange-pigmented, lower and upper incisors.

Laotian giant flying squirrels observe black, sharp-clawed limbs; and black cylindrical tails gray-patched basally underneath near black-lined, grizzled, thick-haired rear- to fore-limb patagium ("gold-bordered tunic") membranes.

Thongnami-area central Laotians poach in Khammouan Limestone and Nam Kading National Biodiversity Conservation Areas respectively 15.53 miles (25 kilometers) northwest and 3.11 miles (5 kilometers) southwest.

Laotian giant flying squirrels queue up as wildlife discoveries at 524.93- to 5,249.34-foot (160- to 1,600-meter) altitudes above sea level in karst limestone and semi-evergreen forests. They rank as recent wildlife discoveries related to Namdapha flying squirrels (Biswamoyopterus biswasi, "winged Biswamoy Biswas") 776.71 miles (1,250 kilometers) away in Arunachal Pradesh, northeast India. Laos supports gray-headed (Petaurista elegans), hairy-footed (Belomys pearsonii), Indian (Petaurista philippensis), Indochinese (Hylopetes phayrei), particolored (H. alboniger), red-cheeked (H. spadiceus) and Yunnan (Petaurista yunnanensis) flying squirrels.

Habitat loss and hunting threaten endemic, rare bare-faced bulbuls (Pycnonotus hualon), Laotian giant flying squirrels, langurs (Trachypithecus laotum), limestone rats (Saxatiomys paulinae) and rat-squirrels (Laonastes aenigmamus).

Biswamoyopterus laoensis became the second species in Biswamoyopterus genus with the Sept. 22, 2012, discovery of a specimen in a bushmeat market in Bolikhamxai Province; Dec. 6, 2012; UNOSAT, United Nations, modified by Dr. Blofeld: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

ventral view of female Laotian giant flying squirrel (Biswamoyopterus laoensis), adapted by Sci-News.com from Daosavanh Sanamxay et al. (2013): Sci-News.com: Breaking Science News @scinewscom, via Facebook Sept. 6, 2013, @.https://www.facebook.com/scinewscom/photos/a.450071975032855/613113602062024/

Biswamoyopterus laoensis became the second species in Biswamoyopterus genus with the Sept. 22, 2012, discovery of a specimen in a bushmeat market in Bolikhamxai Province; Dec. 6, 2012; UNOSAT, United Nations, modified by Dr. Blofeld: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Bolikhamsai_Province,_Laos.jpg

For further information:

Jordan, Mike J.R. "Squirrels and Relatives I Flying Squirrels (Pteromyinae)." In: Michael Hutchins, Devra G. Kleiman, Valerius Geist and Melissa C. McDade, eds., Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, Vol. 16 Mammals V: 135-142. Second edition. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2003.

Prostak, Sergio. 6 September 2013. "Biswamoyopterus laoensis: New Species of Flying Squirrel from Laos." Sci-News.com > Biology.
Available @ http://www.sci-news.com/biology/science-biswamoyopterus-laoensis-new-species-flying-squirrel-laos-01361.html

Saha, Subhendu Sekhar. 1981. "A New Genus and a New Species of Flying Squirrels (Mammalia: Rodentia: Sciuridae) from Northeastern India." Bulletin of the Zoological Survey of India, vol. 4, no 3: 331-336.
Available @ http://faunaofindia.nic.in/PDFVolumes/bulletin/004/03/0331-0336.pdf

Sanamxay, Daosavanh; Bounsavane Douangboubpha; Sara Bumrungsri; Sysouphanh Xayavong; Vilakhan Xayaphet; Chutamas Satasook; and Paul J.J. Bates. 15 July 2013. "Rediscovery of Biswamoyopterus (Mammalia: Rodentia: Sciuridae: Pteromyini) in Asia, with the Description of a New Species from Lao PDR." Zootaxa 3686(4): 471.481. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3686.4.5.
Available @ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283898290_Rediscovery_of_Biswamoyopterus_Mammalia_Rodentia_Sciuridae_Pteromyini_in_Asia_with_the_description_of_a_new_species_from_

Sci-News.com: Breaking Science News @scinewscom. 6 September 2013. "Biswamoyopterus laoensis: New Species of Flying Squirrel from Laos http://www.sci-news.com/…/science-biswamoyopterus-laoensis-…" Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/scinewscom/photos/a.450071975032855/613113602062024/