signage for Indian giant squirrel (Ratufa indica)

perhaps the very best animal at the zoo! Beautiful creature, but due to the dim cage and heavy mesh I could not get a proper photo.

See here for what else I saw: http://www.zoochat.com/254/alipore-zoo-visit-15-feb-2014-a-355860/

I'm also glad you saw these - although the species I have seen is a different one, I am very fond of Ratufa squirrels.

I actually completely forgot about the squirrel when writing the review -- and it was the only new mammal for me there (apart for the grey langurs)! I think it must have been because while the squirrel itself was great, the cage was quite dark and thus not memorable (although it was certainly larger than those given to Ratufa in most Asian zoos!).

On the review thread I have added a list of the few species which I did miss according to the inventory on the CZA site.

is that the Sri Lankan one you've seen (R. macroura)? I'm pretty sure that the Ratufa species which used to be one of the standard animals of all the small 1970s UK zoos was the Malabar squirrel (which is R. indica, the same as the one this sign is for). Then India banned their export and they all disappeared from the UK because no-one was breeding them.

I really like Ratufa myself (although I like all squirrels really). I've seen two species wild (bicolor and affinis) and three in captivity (bicolor again, as well as macroura and now indica). Annoyingly I am not going to see indica in the wild this time round because the species in Assam is bicolor.

yes their distribution is central and southern India. Unfortunately for me they don't go up as far as Assam.

Oh yes also I did mean to put "Malabar giant squirrel" but I forgot the "giant".....

Correct - and if I am fortunate when on my trip to Germany I shall see it again before too long

As well as the large numbers of R.indica, there were smaller populations of R.affinis and R.bicolor in the UK up until the late 1980s. Of the four species mentioned, only macroura and bicolor remain in Europe.