The orange-bellied Himalayan squirrel (Dremomys lokriah)
The orange-bellied Himalayan squirrel (Dremomys lokriah) is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. It is found in Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan.
Distinguishing features
The genus Dremomys resemble common squirrels in appearance and size. They are dark, greyish-brown on top and white, grey or orange on the ventral side. Dremomys lokriah has bright red spots on the thighs.
Taxonomy
The species was first described as Sciurus lokriah by Hodgson in the year 1836. He collected the specimens from the South Xizang region of Mount Everest. In 1916, Thomas and Wroughton described a species from the Manipur, India and Chin Hills as D. macmillani. Later that year, Wroughton also described a subspecies of D. lokriah as D. l. macmillani. lokriah as D. l. bhotia from the specimens collected from sedochen of Sikkim Himalaya, and Manipur. Thomas in 1922 described two more subspecies, Dremomys lokriah garonum from Garo Hills, Meghalaya and Dremomys lokriah subflaviventris from Mishmi Hills, Arunachal Pradesh, India. Moore in 1956 described Dremomys lokriah pagus from the specimens collected from Chin Hills, Myanmar and Lushai Hills, Mizoram, India. Cai and Zhang in 1980 described another subspecies Dremomys lokriah motuoensis and Li and Wang described Dremomys lokriah nielamuensis in 1992 from China.
Although subspecies of Dremomys lokriah has gone though several revisions, currently, there are a total of eight known valid subspecies of the Orange-bellied Himalayan Squirrel exists throughout its distribution range. Six of them are distributed in India. All of the validations of these subspecies were however through morpho-taxonomy and multivariate analysis. Molecular studies on the validation of these subspecies are still to be performed.
Habitat
The five species of this group are distributed in the forests of Nepal, southern Tibet and China, Assam, Burma, Thailand, Indochina and Malacca, the Kalimantan Islands and Taiwan. In the mountains, Dremomys lokriah reaches almost to the upper limit of woody vegetation, and is sometimes found among shrubs and curvilinear forests, at 3,400 metres above sea level.
Lifestyle and habits
These squirrels usually stay in trees, but spend a lot of time on the ground or in the shrub layer of the forest. Dremomys make nests in hollow trees or in the lower part of the crown up to a height of 5 metres. 1-2 times a year the female has offspring of 3-4 (up to 6) baby squirrels.
Habitat
Dremomys lokriah is distributed in northeastern South Asia, southern China and western Southeast Asia. It can be found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, China and Myanmar at altitudes up to 3000 metres. Dremomys lokriah inhabit evergreen and broadleaved forests, in Nepal they live in oak forests with an understorey of rhododendrons. Like all squirrels, they are diurnal. Females give birth to 2 to 5 baby squirrels.
