New species of flying squirrel discovered in Yunnan

A Sino-Australian team has discovered a new species of flying squirrel in a national nature reserve in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

The new species has been added to the rarest and most "wanted" genus of flying squirrels listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Global Wildlife Conservation.

Previous to the finding, the genus only comprises two species, each described as a single specimen found in India and Laos, respectively.

The paper on the new finding was published on the international peer-reviewed journal ZooKeys on Thursday.

Li Quan, the first writer of the paper and a member of the Kunming Institute of Zoology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the team has discovered two specimens of the new flying squirrel species, and used monitoring cameras to capture the images of a live squirrel. It was discovered in the 1,250-km "blank area" between the isolated habitats of the two previously found species.

"It means that it is possible that there are more populations of this group in the area," said Li.

He said the Gaoligong Mountain Nature Reserve is a low altitude forest where animals are easily disturbed by human activities. It is urgent to strengthen the ecological protection of this rare and endangered species in the area.

Jiang Ming, director of the administration bureau of the nature reserve, said the eastern Himalayan region is one of the world's most important "species gene banks," where many rare species have been discovered and monitored in recent years. The bureau has stepped up its protection efforts in collaboration with research institutes.

Editor: John Li