| Sunda Flying Lemur[1] | |
|---|---|
| Galeopterus variegatus | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Dermoptera |
| Family: | Cynocephalidae |
| Genus: | Galeopterus Thomas, 1908 |
| Species: | G. variegatus |
| Binomial name | |
| Galeopterus variegatus (Audebert, 1799) |
|
| Sunda Flying Lemur range | |
The Sunda Flying Lemur (Galeopterus variegatus), also known as the Malayan Flying Lemur, is a species of colugo (see below for notes on the common name "flying lemur"). Until recently, it was thought to be one of only two species of flying lemur, the other being the Philippine Flying Lemur which is found only in the Philippines. The Sunda flying lemur is found throughout Southeast Asia in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.[3]
The Sunda Flying Lemur is not a lemur and does not fly. Instead, it glides as it leaps among trees. It is strictly arboreal, is active at night, and feeds on soft plant parts such as young leaves, shoots, flowers, and fruits. After a 60-day gestation period, a single offspring is carried on the mother's abdomen held by a large skin membrane.[4] It is a forest-dependent species.
Head-body length of Sunda Flying Lemur is about 34 to 38 cm. Its tail length is around 24 to 25 cm and weight is 0.9 to 1.3 kg.
The Sunda Flying Lemur is protected by national legislation. In addition to deforestation and loss of habitat, local subsistence hunting poses a serious threat to this animal. Competition with the Plantain squirrel (Callosciurus notatus) represents another challenge for this species. More information is needed on population declines, but at present it is believed that the rate of the decline is probably not fast enough to trigger listing in any category other than Least Concern.
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The Sunda Colugo has two forms which are not morphologically distinct from one another, the large form occurring on the mainland of the Sunda Shelf area and the mainland of Southeast Asia while the dwarf form occurring in Central Laos and some other adjacent Islands (Stafford and Szalay, 2000). According to Ruggeri and Etterson (1998), the Sunda Colugo from Laos specimen is smaller (about 20%) than the other known mainland population. Despite the large and dwarf form, there are four known subspecies of G. variegatus: G. v. variegatus (Java), G. v. temminckii (Sumatra), G. v. borneanus (Borneo), and G. v. peninsulae (Peninsular Malaysia and mainland of Southeast Asia) (Stafford and Szalay, 2000) incorporating on the genetic species concept due to geographic isolation and genetic divergence. Recent molecular and morphological data provide the evidence that the mainland, Javan and Borneo Sunda Colugo subspecies may be recognised as three separate species in the genus Galeopterus (Janecka et al., 2008).
Vaughan (1986) stated that Sunda Colugos are skillful climbers but are helpless when on the ground. Their gliding membrane connects from the neck, extending along the limbs to the tips of the fingers, toes and nails (Feldhamer et al., 2003). This kite-shaped is known as a patagium, which is expanded for gliding. The Sunda Colugo can glide over a distance of 100 m with a loss of less than 10 m in elevation (Feldhamer et al., 2003). The Sunda Colugo can maneuver and navigate while gliding, but strong rain and wind can affect its ability to glide (Byrnes et al., 2008). Gliding usually occurs in open areas or high in the canopy, especially in dense tropical rainforest. According to Byrnes (2008), the Sunda Colugo needs a certain distance to glide and to land in order to avoid injury.
In general, the diet of Sunda Colugos consists mainly of leaves. They usually consume leaves with less potassium and nitrogen but with higher tannin (Agoramoorthy et al., 2006). The Sunda Colugo also feeds on buds (Yasuma and Andau, 2000), shoots (Francis, 2008), coconut flowers, durian flowers (Ketol et al., 2006), fruits (Lim, 1967) and sap (Lim, 2007) from selected tree species. There were also notes on the Sunda Colugo to feed on insects in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo but the type of insect were not mentioned (Davis, 1958). The selected food source all depends on the localities, habitat, vegetation types and the availability of food sources (Sih, 1993).
The Sunda Colugo mainly forages in tree canopies. Occasionally, the it forages on several different tree species in a single night (Wischusen, 1990; Wischusen and Richmond, 1998). However, there may be some cases in which the Sunda Colugo forages on a single tree species throughout the night. The Sunda Colugo can also be seen licking tree barks of selected tree species to obtain water, nutrients, salts and minerals (Lim, 2007).
The Sunda Colugo is widely distributed throughout Southeast Asia, ranging from the Sunda Shelf mainland to other islands – Northern Laos (Ruggeri and Etterson, 1998), Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia (Peninsular, Sabah and Sarawak), Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia (Kalimantan, Sumatera, Bali, Java) (Corbet and Hill, 1992; Stafford, 2005) and many adjacent Islands (Francis, 2008). Conversely, the Philippine Colugo (C. volans) is confined to the southern parts of the Philippines only (Stafford, 2005).
The Sunda Colugo is adapted to many different vegetation types, including gardens, primary and secondary forest (Lekagul and McNeely, 1977), rubber and coconut plantation (Hill, 1993), fruit orchards (dusun) Ketol et al. (2006), mangrove swamps (Yasuma and Andau, 2000), lowlands and upland forests (Payne et al., 1985; Feldhamer et al., 2003), tree plantations (Francis, 2008), lowland dipterocarp forests and mountainous area (Lim, 1967). However, not all of the mentioned habitats can sustain large colugo populations.
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