The Malayan Giant Squirrel: Assam’s Giant of the Canopy, and Why It Is in Trouble

Photographs: © Pranabesh Barman

The squirrel in these photographs is lying flat along a branch with its legs tucked under it. Its chin rests on the bark, and its long, dark tail hangs straight down. The coat is a deep maroon-black, with a pale buff patch on the cheeks and chest. It looks completely relaxed, as if nothing in the forest could reach it.

This is the Malayan giant squirrel (Ratufa bicolor), also called the black giant squirrel. It is one of the largest squirrels in the world. In India it lives only in the northeast and the eastern Himalayan foothills, and scientists warn that its range here is shrinking fast.

What the photographs show

The landscape photograph shows the squirrel from the side, lying along a lichen-covered branch where it forks from the trunk. The tail runs back along the branch and is longer than the body. Seeing the whole animal at once like this gives a clear sense of its proportions.

The portrait photograph is closer and more frontal. The squirrel’s face is pressed to the branch, with its dark eye visible. Long whiskers spread from the snout, and the buff colouring runs from the cheek down the chest. The tail hangs straight down below the branch, showing just how long and thick it is.

In both images the background is a soft blur of green. That happens with a long telephoto lens and a wide aperture: the squirrel is sharp, and the forest behind dissolves. It also means the photographer was well back from the animal, which is the right way to photograph wildlife.

The posture in both frames is a typical resting position for giant squirrels. Lying flat along a branch spreads the body’s weight. It also keeps a dark shape pressed against the bark, where it is harder for a predator to see.

Identifying the Malayan giant squirrel

Feature	Description
Scientific name	Ratufa bicolor
Common names	Malayan giant squirrel, black giant squirrel
Head and body	About 34–37 cm
Tail	About 41–42 cm, longer than the body
Weight	About 1.05–1.25 kg
Upperparts	Dark brown, maroon or black, including the back, head, ears and tail
Underparts	Pale buff to yellowish, including cheeks, chest and belly
Activity	Active by day, mostly in trees
Status	Near Threatened (IUCN Red List)

The name bicolor means “two-coloured”, describing the sharp contrast between the dark upper body and the pale underside. Both photographs show it clearly.

For comparison, an ordinary Indian palm squirrel weighs around 100 g. A giant squirrel can be more than ten times heavier.

Where it lives

The Malayan giant squirrel ranges across Southeast Asia and into South Asia. In India it is found in West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland. It lives in evergreen and semi-evergreen forest, moist broadleaf forest and hill forest, from the plains up to about 2,700 m. Kaziranga National Park in Assam is one of the places where visitors most often see it.

It needs tall trees with connected canopies. It travels mostly through the treetops, jumping between branches, and rarely comes down to the ground. Where forest is cut into patches with gaps between them, it becomes stranded.

How it lives

Diet. It eats mainly seeds, fruits, nuts and leaves, and sometimes cones in hill forests. Many of the fruits it eats come from large forest trees. It may help spread seeds as it moves through the canopy, though this has not been studied in detail in India.

Daily routine. It is most active in the morning and late afternoon, and often rests on a branch during the hottest hours, as in these photographs. It is mostly solitary. You normally see one animal at a time, sometimes a pair.

Nests. Giant squirrels build bulky nests of leaves and twigs, called dreys, high in the canopy. They also use tree hollows. Litters are small, usually only one or two young. That slow breeding rate is one reason the species can’t recover quickly from hunting or habitat loss.

Voice. Giant squirrels give loud, harsh calls that carry through the forest. Often you hear one long before you see it.

Things most people don’t know

Its tail is longer than its body. At 41–42 cm, the tail is used for balance while leaping between branches. At rest it hangs straight down, as the portrait photograph shows.

It may be more than one species. Scientists recognise about ten subspecies across its range, and some have quite different colouring. In parts of Indonesia the back looks paler, and on some islands the belly is orange. Researchers have suggested that what we now call Ratufa bicolor may include several separate species. The question is still open.

India’s population is declining. The Zoological Survey of India studied the species and published the findings in Mammal Study in 2020 (Chatterjee and colleagues). They estimated that its numbers in India fell by about 30% over the previous two decades. Their models suggested that, without action, suitable habitat in India could shrink to about 3% of its current extent by 2050. That would leave the squirrel mainly in parts of North Bengal and Sikkim.

It is protected by Indian law. The Malayan giant squirrel is protected under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, and is also listed on Appendix II of CITES, the international agreement that regulates trade in wildlife. Hunting it, capturing it or trading it is a criminal offence.

Threats

The main threats in India are:

• Forest loss and fragmentation from logging, roads and settlements
• Clearing of forest for farming, including shifting (jhum) cultivation in parts of the Northeast
• Hunting for meat in some areas
• Climate change, which models suggest will shift suitable habitat uphill and shrink it

Because the animal depends on unbroken canopy, even narrow gaps cut by roads can isolate groups from each other.

Seeing and photographing giant squirrels responsibly

• Look up and listen. Watch for swaying branches high in the canopy, and listen for their loud calls in the early morning.
• Visit protected areas with a guide. Kaziranga and other forests of the Northeast give good chances of a sighting.
• Use a long lens and keep your distance, as the photographer did here. A squirrel resting or feeding should not be disturbed.
• Don’t use calls, food or noise to attract it.
• Report your sightings on platforms like iNaturalist. Records with dates and locations help researchers track where the species still lives.

Conclusion

The Malayan giant squirrel is one of the largest squirrels in the world. It weighs over a kilogram and has a tail longer than its body. In India it lives only in the forests of the Northeast and the eastern Himalayan foothills, it depends on continuous tree canopy, and its numbers here have fallen by about 30% in two decades. Photographs like these, of a squirrel resting undisturbed on a high branch, also record where the species was still living when they were taken.