Like most fans of anime and manga, I got into Pokémon at one time, too. I didn’t do a lot with the cards, but I bought a bunch of them for my little brother. When the Pokémon Go game came out, our entire family played that and it was a lot of fun. I even started cycling so that I could go around and catch rare Pokémon where we live. However, no made-up creature could ever compete with the real live beautiful creatures we have in nature, and when it comes to a unique variety of different wildlife, there’s no better place to look than Japan and its outlying islands.
One of the most adorable wild creatures inhabits the Japanese islands of Kyushu and Honshu. These are Japanese dwarf flying squirrels, similar to tiny Pokemon flying in the wild. They are also called Ezo Momonga and are absolutely adorable. This species of squirrel is one of two Old World flying squirrel species that still exist in the wild. On the islands, Japanese dwarf flying squirrels live in boreal evergreen forests. On Animalis.bio, we learned that these little squirrels are “extremely small and fluffy.”
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And looking at these cute photos, it’s easy to be convinced that this is true. However, don’t be fooled by how cute they are. These little squirrels are very fast and can slide up to 100 meters at a time. In addition, they use their unique abilities to travel between trees, navigate, and dodge predators. Unlike many squirrels, Japanese dwarf flying squirrels are strictly nocturnal and do not hibernate. They are active all year round.
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It is rare to see one of these babies up close because they never descend from the trees, unlike the more common squirrels that many of us are used to seeing.
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They grow to be about 4.7-9 inches in length, according to AnimalDiversity.org.
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For food, these squirrels eat nuts, fruits, and seeds, but also occasionally the buds and barks of certain trees and maybe even some insects. Watch the video below to see one of these little squirrels up close.
