HOKKAIDO, JAPAN

Ignore what your eyes seem to be telling you about this image: flying squirrels can’t take off from the ground. What this sequence shows is the way a flying squirrel sweeps upwards as it comes into land, after launching and gliding down from a spot higher in the canopy.

What’s most unusual about this isn’t the squirrel’s flight path, though. It’s the fact we can see it at all. Normally, this species of flying squirrel, Pteromys volans orii, only comes out at night. But after a pair of Ural owls began hunting in the Hokkaido forest during the winter of 2021-2022, the squirrels became more active during the day to avoid the new nocturnal predators.

The change in behaviour gave photographer Tony Wu a chance to capture these elusive rodents swooping through the dense trees, a feat they achieve by extending the furry membranes – called patagia – that connect their wrists to their ankles.

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