Paul Carter, 20 Aug 2016
Revised 8 Nov 2016 to include reference to a 1965 paper with images of a captured animal.
Revised 3 Sep 2024, adding better resolution images, edits and iNaturalist references.
Summary
On 26 May 2016, whilst spotlighting alone along Power Station Road in Kinabalu Park (Borneo, Malaysia) I photographed a Whiskered Flying Squirrel (Petinomys genibarbis) very close to the 4 Km post and at an elevation of approximately 1840 m. This appears to be a notable elevation record; and possibly the first photographs in the wild.
Observation Notes: The characteristic tuft of very long dark whiskers centered on a wart behind the eye is clearly evident. No other flying squirrel has such a tuft of whiskers behind the eye (Francis, 2008). The reddish upperparts appear to have dark underfur. The forehead is brownish; with dark grey around the eyes (apart from the rear of the eye). The cheek and temple are orange. It is orange-tinged white or cream below. The upper side of the patagium is black as illustrated in Francis (2008), compared to Phillipps and Phillipps (2016) in which it is illustrated as reddish. The patagium has a white margin and is white on the underside. My images do not show the lower back which is reported in the field-guides as being golden-pinkish or pinkish-brown.
2024 update: on 3 Sep 2024 I posted this record to iNaturalist (here)
Time and Location: I photographed this squirrel at 8.20 pm on 26 May 2016. It was seen very close to the 4 Km post (about 500 m before Tympohon Gate) on the Power Station Road in Kinabalu Park (Borneo). I estimate from Google Earth that it was at an elevation of approximately 1840 m. Kinabalu Park in northern Sabah (Malaysian Borneo) is centered on Mount Kinabalu at 4095 m. The Power Station Road is the 4.5. km long sealed access road from the park’s headquarters (at 1570 m elevation) through montane forest up to Tympohon Gate at 1860 m.
Other Records of Whiskered Flying Squirrel (Petinomys genibarbis)
Very little is known about the behavior and distribution of Petinomys genibarbis (Erik Meijaard, pers comm). An online search (2016) did not produce any other confirmed images and it seems to be rarely recorded or photographed.
Subsequent to my initial posting of this record I was informed by Paula Bohaska (assistant to Richard Thorington, Smithsonian Institution) of a paper by Lim Boo Liat entitled “The Malayan Whiskered Flying Squirrel” and published in 1965 in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 144 (4): 565-567. The paper includes black-and-white images were of an animal that had been caught in Daurian trees at an elevation of around 450 m at Bukit Lagong Forest Reserve, Selangor on mainland Malaysia and subsequently photographed inside a house.
2024 update: there is still only one other record shown on iNaturalist.
References:
– Abdullah M (2012). Red List of Mammals of Peninsular Malaysia. DWNP. 2012 p124. Viewed online 14 Aug 2016 at: https://www.academia.edu/2464182/Red_List_of_Mammals_of_Peninsular_Malaysia._DWNP._2012.
– Francis C.M. (2008). A field guide to the mammals of Thailand and South-east Asia, p154 and p163. Asia Books.
– iNaturalist (2024 Sep 3). Whiskered Flying Squirrel Petinomys genibarbis. Species page: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/45972-Petinomys-genibarbis
– IUCN Redlist (2016). Viewed online 14 Aug 2016 at: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/16735/0
– Phillipps Q. & Phillipps K. (2016). Phillipps’ Field Guide to the Mammals of Borneo and Their Ecology: Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, and Kalimantan, p 282. John Beaufoy Publishing.