70 



YOSEMITE NATURE NOTES 



Photo by foe Grate* 

 Captive Sierra flying squirrel, eating apple. 



area as they leaped from the tall trees 

 along the side of the rink. In summer. 

 Valley campers find that their bacon and 

 butter have been nibbled during the night 

 by "some creature larger than a mouse." 



Probably the most adept of the squir- 

 rels at traveling through the branches 

 from tree to tree, it has the added ability 

 to volplane across openings between trees 

 where the branches are not close enough 

 to be spanned by a simple jump. These 

 glides are as near flying as the squirrel 

 ever achieves. It leaps from a height, ex- 

 tends the web of furred skin that con- 

 nects wrists and ankles, straightens out 

 the flat tail and glides downward at an 

 angle, sometimes covering as much as 

 1 50 feet at a single glide and usually land- 

 ing near the base of the trunk of another 

 tree. It has the power to change course 

 while in flight, and can check its speed 

 for landing by manipulation of the web 

 and tail. Always it must have a height 



slender forefeet are better suited for han- 

 dling and shelling small seeds than for 

 digging, so extensive burrows in the 

 ground are seldom made. 



They prefer shelter obtained by tun- 

 neling in soft, decayed wood, or seek it 

 among crevices in the rock. Apparently 

 some of our chipmunks hibernate and 

 others do not, but available information 

 regarding their winter habits is very in- 

 complete. 



The Siena flying squirrel, while 

 quite common, is not likely to be seen by 

 many Yosemite visitors. It is abroad only 

 at night, spending the daylight hours 

 curled up, with its tail over its face, in 

 an old woodpecker hole or rotten snag. 

 In winter, while skating at Camp Curry 

 rink, I have seen these little gliders, zip- 

 ping like tiny shadows across the lighted 



<iequn,j Nail. Park Ph„ic 

 I lying squirrel landing on tree trunk. 



