Oriental giant squirrels are very large tree squirrels from the genus Ratufa in the subfamily Ratufinae. They are a distinctive element of the fauna of south and southeast Asia.
There are four living species of oriental giant squirrels:
- Cream-coloured giant squirrel, Ratufa affinis
- Black giant squirrel, Ratufa bicolor
- Indian giant squirrel, Ratufa indica
- Grizzled giant squirrel, Ratufa macroura
In prehistoric times this lineage was more widespread. For example, animals very similar to Ratufa and possibly belonging to this genus - at least belonging to the Ratufinae - were part of the early Langhian (Middle Miocene, some 16-15.2 million years ago) Hambach fauna of Germany.
Famous quotes containing the words oriental, giant and/or squirrel:
“Behold the difference between the Oriental and the Occidental. The former has nothing to do in this world; the latter is full of activity. The one looks in the sun until his eyes are put out; the other follows him prone in his westward course.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Haze, char, and the weather of All Souls:
A giant absence mopes upon the trees:”
—Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)
“A squirrel leaping from bough to bough, and making the wood but one wide tree for his pleasure, fills the eye not less than a lion,—is beautiful, self-sufficing, and stands then and there for nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)