By Ronica Stromberg
Josh Palik looks forward to one day sighting endangered whales, but at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the fisheries and wildlife senior recently made a rare sighting of another sort. He was taking photos on East Campus for a journalism class when he spotted a southern flying squirrel, a threatened species in Nebraska.
Palik had a digital camera in hand and was looking for a flower or another plant with symmetry to photograph for class when he looked up into a tree about 15 feet away and saw a tiny squirrel with large eyes. This was not one of the gray or black fox squirrels commonly seen scampering around campus. Palik began shooting photos.
He had heard how, in 2021, the landscape crew on East Campus had filmed a southern flying squirrel gliding down from a tree. Before that, the squirrels were thought to be living only in the southeast part of the state, along the Missouri River. John Carroll, professor of wildlife ecology and management, said the only specimens in the state museum came from Nebraska City around World War I.
The 2021 appearance of the gliding rodent—they don't actually fly—had caused a sensation in the School of Natural Resources. Not every day does a rare species show up at your doorstep for observation. Following the sighting, the school launched a Lincoln Flying Squirrel Squad with the surrounding neighborhood and Calvert Elementary School. Its Nebraska Maps & More Store brought in flying squirrel-themed T-shirts and stuffed animals for sale. The school received a Nebraska Watchable Wildlife Grant from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and built nesting boxes for the new neighbors to live in.
And then the nocturnal critters seemed to disappear into the night. Scientists climbed ladders to the nesting boxes and found a few twigs and leaves in them but where were the squirrels? Sightings were few and far between and lacked photographic evidence.
See the squirrels and find out what happened next at https://snr.unl.edu/aboutus/what/newstory.aspx?fid=1311