The long-eared flying mouse (''Idiurus macrotis'') or long-eared scaly-tailed flying squirrel, is a species of flying mouse from western and central

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. It is not actually a squirrel, nor a

mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

, though it is a rodent. Not much is known about them because they are very hard to keep alive in captivity. To achieve gliding flight, it uses two membranes ( patagia) which fold up when not in use. When the limbs are stretched wide in a star-shape, the membranes become taut and allow the

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are roden ...

to glide from tree to tree. Being

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. The habitats pose num ...

, ''Idiurus'' spends all of its time in the trees, living in hollow trunks in groups of 2 to 40. Limit information suggests that it is mainly

frugivorous A frugivore is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots, shoots, nuts and seeds. Approximately 20% of mammalian herbivores eat fruit. Frugivores are highly dependent on the abundance an ...

. It has a long tail in proportion to its body, sporting two lines of raised scales, and patches of scaly skin to help it grip trees, but the rest of its body is furry. The tail is longer than the body and is also used to balance, like a

primate Primates are a diverse order (biology), order of mammals. They are divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include the Tarsiiformes, tarsiers and ...

's tail. Long-eared scaly-tailed flying squirrels are about 20 cm long and weigh 30g. In comparison, the body of a common household mouse is approximately 10 cm long and its tail is approximately 5 cm.

References

long-eared flying mouse Mammals of West Africa Mammals of Cameroon Mammals of the Democratic Republic of the Congo long-eared flying mouse {{rodent-stub