Gliding Flying Squirrel Movies

Life post PhD is good.  I am working on getting some more reseach papers published.  Here are some fun movies of flying squirrels gliding that we were lucky enough to see during our field research.

After years of trying to get a good glide on film this is the best.  It was taken by Sophie on the last few days of trapping.  She was a masters student from France that came to Canada to volunteer on the flying squirrel project in 2008.  You can also hear the voice of Wil Brunner.  Another great flying squirrel crew alumni.

Flying squirrels are normally not active during the day making it almost impossible to see a glide.  These movies were taken after a flying squirrel was released from a live trap (set during the night). Usually they are a little dozy when released- so we would give the tree a little tap to get them moving. I was always worried that a crow or hawk might pick them out of the tree if they sat up there too long  (it actually happened once..that is another story).

Here is another movie that was taken at the beginning of my research in 2006.  A student from Parkview Education Centre on a class trip took this video.