One of world’s largest squirrel species found in India: Pic

One of world’s largest squirrel species have been found in India. A Forest Official has shared the photo of the giant squirrel on his X (formerly Twitter) handle.

Sharing the photo of the squirrel IFS officer Parveen Kaswan wrote in the caption, “One of the world’s largest squirrel species found in #India. Can you identify. Buxa.” The photo was shared on August 13 and within a short span of less than two days, so far it has already viewed by 103.6K people.

So as expected most of people thought it as Malabar Giant Squirrel. No. It is a Malayan Giant Squirrel. Also called as Black Giant Squirrel. In India we have three giant squirrels; Malayan giant squirrel. Malabar giant squirrel, Grizzled giant squirrel, the IFS officer explained on X platform.

The post has also received a number of comments.

A user wrote in the comment box, “When I was in #NewYork  I had noticed that the squirrel are bigger than ours but really amazed to know that even we Do hv bigger squirrel.”

“Malayan Giant Squirrel…saw them in Manas National Park,” commented another user.

Another user commented, “Doesn’t look like a Malabar giant squirrel.”

It’s really beautiful, I had the opportunity to see a few during my strip to Tirupati few years ago. I had also spotted one in Mumbai about 10-15 yrs ago in Versova Andheri west. I believe this is unique to western ghats region of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa & Konkan, yet another user commented.

One of the world’s largest squirrel species found in #India. Can you identify. Buxa. pic.twitter.com/HZnE2NKLJd

— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) August 13, 2023