{"id":82029,"date":"2026-01-11T12:16:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T06:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=82029"},"modified":"2026-01-12T15:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T10:13:14","slug":"indian-giant-squirrel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/indian-giant-squirrel\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian Giant Squirrel"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Indian Giant Squirrel Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the ongoing All India Tiger Estimation 2026 survey, the Indian giant squirrel, Maharashtra\u2019s state animal and locally known as Shekru, was recently sighted in the Atwan region of the Pune forest division.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Indian Giant Squirrel<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also known as the <\/span><b>Malabar Giant Squirrel,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the Indian Giant Squirrel is a <\/span><b>large rodent <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">species <\/span><b>native to India.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More specifically, it is a <\/span><b>type of tree squirrel.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>one of the largest squirrels<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the world.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientific Name: Ratufa indica\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Indian Giant Squirrel <\/b><b>Distribution<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is found primarily in the <\/span><b>Western Ghats, Eastern Ghats<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><b>Satpura Range.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their ranges include many states, including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>Maharashtra\u2019s state animal<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>locally known as Shekru.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Indian Giant Squirrel <\/b><b>Habitat<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>arboreal<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, spending <\/span><b>most of its time in trees<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It makes its shelter within holes in trees.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Indian Giant Squirrel <\/b><b>Features<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Total body length varies from 254 to 457 mm. The <\/span><b>tail <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is <\/span><b>typically longer than<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the <\/span><b>length of its body.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These squirrels weigh approximately 1.5 to 2 kg.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are distinguishable by their <\/span><b>striking, multi-colored hues<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span><b> colors vary<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> between individual squirrels. There is a common pattern of<\/span><b> two to three shades, including white or cream, brown, black, red, maroon<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and sometimes <\/span><b>dark Fuschia.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The deep shades are primarily seen along the body, while the <\/span><b>lighter colors <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">occur <\/span><b>on the underside and the long, bushy tail.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have <\/span><b>short, round ears,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a <\/span><b>broadened hand <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with an<\/span><b> expanded inner paw for gripping,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and large,<\/span><b> powerful claws <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">used <\/span><b>for gripping tree bark <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and branches.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Females <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are usually <\/span><b>larger<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in size than their male counterparts by about three centimeters and have <\/span><b>mammae for nursing their young.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are typically <\/span><b>solitary <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">animals<\/span><b>,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> being seen only rarely in pairs during the breeding season.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They can <\/span><b>propel impressive distances<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of 20 feet.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Indian Giant Squirrel <\/b><b>Conservation Status<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is classified as &#8216;<b>Least Concern<\/b>&#8216; under the IUCN Red List.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/cities\/mumbai\/indian-giant-squirrel-sighting-tiger-survey-pune-forest-biodiversity-10460454\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Indian Giant Squirrel, also called the Malabar Giant Squirrel, is a large tree squirrel native to India and one of the largest squirrel species in the world. Read more about Indian Giant Squirrel, Distribution, Habitat, Features, News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":82216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4675,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-82029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-indian-giant-squirrel","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}