The Natural Moment 



Ghost in a Snowstorm 



Gliding silently through the chilly night, a flying 

 squirrel navigates a forest in Hokkaido, Japan's 

 northernmost island. Although this species (Pteromys 

 volans) is known as the European flying squirrel, it ranges 

 throughout the coniferous forests of Eurasia, from Finland to 

 eastern Siberia and the northern tip of Japan. Brown with 

 white underparts in summer, its entire coat turns silver gray 

 and silky smooth in winter. 



A versatile climber that is awkward on the ground (and 

 avoids walking on it), a flying squirrel can glide as far as 

 130 feet from tree to tree. A furry flightskin on the sides of 

 its body, joined to the front legs and rear ankle joints, acts as 

 an airfoil, while the bushy tail serves as a rudder. Active 

 mainly in the evening and at night, flying squirrels eat birch 

 bark and leaves, buds of coniferous and deciduous trees, 

 insects, pine seeds, alder catkins, berries, and mushrooms. In 

 winter, the northern populations feed almost exclusively 

 on larch bark and buds. 



Photographer Seiichi Meguro has dedicated himself to 

 photographing the squirrels, foxes, and other shy forest 

 creatures near his Hokkaido home. Since flying squirrels 

 habitually traverse the same routes on flieir feeding rounds, 

 Meguro positioned himself near tiie sites of their regular 

 flights. Focusing his camera on the area in which he 

 expected a squirrel to leap, he clicked away when one 

 appeared. Because the squirrels' movements are very rapid, 

 Meguro finds it useless to follow tiiem through the camera's 

 viewfinder. Working at night, when his subjects are most 

 active, the photographer kept after the squirrels 

 for five years before he was able to create this eerie winter 

 nocturne. — R. M. 



r«-v 



Photographs by Seiichi Meguro 



Nature Production 



76 Natural History 1/94 



