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Flying squirrels in NYC
New York City's Parks and Recreation Department shared a video on Twitter of a Park Ranger releasing a baby flying squirrel back into the wild. New York has an overlap of northern and southern flying squirrels, and they’re actually in our parks feeding on acorns and fungi.
NEW YORK - If you're living in New York you're likely going to see something unusual every now and then, but what about seeing something like a flying squirrel?
New York City's Parks and Recreation Department shared a video on Twitter of Ranger Michael Whitten releasing a baby flying squirrel back into the wild.
"He just hopped right on up and scurried up, and before you knew it he was almost licking me in the face and continued like okay this is isn’t a tree that I can really hang around too long, so he just hopped right off," said Ranger Whitten with NYC’s Park and Rec Department.
And while there might not have been a moose following it along, flying squirrels like "Rocky" are actually normal parts of the city's wildlife.
"It’s this very small delicate creature. They only weigh about 5 ounces," he told FOX 5 NY.
New York has an overlap of northern and southern flying squirrels, and they’re actually in our parks feeding on acorns and fungi though it's hard to spot one.
"They come out mostly at night, and they’ve developed eyes that help them see better in the nighttime," said Whitten.
FLYING SQUIRRELS---07/26/04---Preparing for take-off after being released a Glaucomys sabrinus, Northern Flying Squirrel, readies to jump. These appealing little creatures are found throughout most of the forested areas of Canada, but are rarely seen …
But if you do, you wouldn’t be disappointed.
"They’re obviously really cute and really cool to see because they can glide between tree to tree anywhere between 60 feet sometimes as far as 300 feet," he explained.
For Ranger Mike who's a Georgia native, seeing Rocky the baby flying school made the big city feel a little more like home for him.
"I didn’t know until like seeing Rocky here that we had them here so it’s really cool to like to know all the animals we see in the daytime aren’t all the animals that call New York City home," he shared.