Indian Palm Squirrel

Quick Take

• A Hindu myth explains exactly how this squirrel got its distinctive stripes, and the explanation involves a god's touch. See the striped markings →
• This squirrel is sacred in one country and actively hunted in another, and the reason why reveals a dark side of its adaptability. Explore the hunting history →
• Unlike virtually every other squirrel, this species skips a behavior that defines the entire family. That absence changes how it survives winter. Discover the hibernation exception →
• Its body has a structural quirk that lets it do something most animals physically can't, and this ability is what allows it to outrun predators. See the paw structure →

It’s not just cows that are considered sacred in India. In Hindu texts, a powerful deity named Lord Rama was building a bridge over the sea to help him find his kidnapped wife when a squirrel helped by moving tiny pebbles to the construction area. When Rama thanked the squirrel by petting its back, his fingers left stripes.

Today, Indian palm squirrels are considered sacred to many Indians thanks to that story. However, they’ve also become an invasive species that threatens new habitats far from India’s borders.   

Incredible Palm Squirrel Facts

• The Indian Palm Squirrel escaped from the Perth Zoo in Australia and rapidly began expanding across the city’s suburbs. It’s believed that fewer than 10 survive as an invasive species in Australia today.  
• The Indian Palm squirrel is different from other squirrels because it doesn’t hibernate.
• The species is known for its distinctive three stripes across its back. However, it’s far from the only squirrel species in India with unique markings. For example, the Indian giant squirrel is known to have a “rainbow coat!”

Scientific Name and Classification

The squirrel’s scientific name is Funambulus palmarum. Funambulus is Latin for the tightrope walker, which describes the squirrel’s agility. Palmarum means that it is of palm trees. Another name for the squirrel is the three-striped palm squirrel.

Because of its stripes, the Indian Palm Squirrel looks very much like a large chipmunk, but chipmunks belong to an entirely different genus.

While there are over 40 different species of squirrels in India, and more than 200 different species of squirrels in the entire world, there are only four subspecies of Indian Palm Squirrels.

These include the following:

• Funambulus palmarum bellaricus (Wroughton, 1916)
• Funambulus palmarum palmarum (Linnaeus, 1766)
• Funambulus palmarum brodiei (Blyth, 1849)
• Funambulus palmarum robertsoni (Wroughton, 1916)

Evolution and Origins

The earliest known fossilized squirrels are from the Eocene epoch. Among other living rodent families, squirrels are most closely related to the mountain beaver and the dormice.

Although the Indian Palm Squirrel originated in Asia, it was artificially introduced to several other areas of the world, such as Australia, during the last century.

Appearance and Behavior

The squirrel ranges from about 9 to 16 inches in total length, and its bushy tail is slightly shorter than its body. It has a gray-brown back with three distinctive stripes. Interestingly, these stripes can even be seen on newborn squirrels before they grow fur.

Young squirrels are lighter in color than adults, and sometimes albino squirrels are born. These are squirrels that lack the pigment that gives other squirrels their color, so their fur is white, and their eyes are red.

The middle of the three stripes runs from the squirrel’s head to its tail, but the outer stripes begin at the squirrel’s front legs and stop at its hind legs. The belly is cream-colored, and the tail has long black and white fur. Overall, the fur is soft and silky. The Indian Palm Squirrel has tiny, triangular ears and large, dark eyes found on the sides of its head. This gives the squirrel nearly 360-degree vision and helps it avoid predators.

An average Indian Palm Squirrel weighs about 3.5 to 4.2 ounces (100 to 120 grams) and is surprisingly fast for its size. It can run about 10 miles per hour (16 km/h). They not only have whiskers on their faces, like cats, but also have them on their legs. These whiskers give the squirrel a superb sense of touch.

The Indian Palm Squirrel has five toes on each of its front paws, including a rudimentary thumb, and four toes on each of its hind paws. The paws have claws that help the squirrel climb, and the ankles on its back legs can rotate 180 degrees. This helps it go down a tree or telephone pole headfirst because its back paws can firmly grip the wood.

A squirrel is a type of rodent, so its teeth keep growing. Gnawing on food keeps its teeth — especially two pairs of long front teeth called incisors — at a manageable size and healthy. The typical arrangement consists of two pairs of incisors for gnawing and cheek teeth for grinding. There’s a big gap between the incisors and cheek teeth called the diastema.

Habitat

The Indian Palm Squirrel is native to the warm, humid areas of the southern Indian subcontinent. It nests at the top of the trees found there, and not just palm trees.

The nest of a squirrel is called a drey and is built from leaves and twigs, lined with soft materials such as moss, feathers, grass, and shredded bark. Instead of hibernating during the winter, the Indian Palm Squirrel just stays in its nest until the day grows warm enough for it to emerge. If it must, the squirrel will even live in a house.

Diet

The squirrel is an omnivore. This means it will eat just about anything, though it prefers fruit and nuts. In India, palm squirrels prefer crops such as nuts, sugarcane, grapes, mangoes, and apples.

Indian palm squirrels also won’t hesitate to eat eggs and even chicks found on poultry farms. This makes them especially dangerous as an invasive species. On the other hand, it eats insects such as caterpillars that also damage crops.

In its natural habitat, the Indian Palm Squirrel will eat other, smaller mammals such as mice, small reptiles, insects, and birds as well as fruit, nuts, eggs, and seeds. Like humans, squirrels can’t digest cellulose.

Because the squirrel is revered in India, people also feed it. As a result, some Indian Palm Squirrels have become quite tame and come to expect handouts from human friends.

Like many squirrels, the Indian Palm Squirrel is fairly aggressive about protecting its food cache and will drive off any animal that tries to pilfer it. It’s a busy and noisy animal and gives off a distinctive chipping alarm call when it senses danger.

Predators and Threats

Because they are small, Indian palm squirrels are favored prey for any sort of carnivore, including mammals like wild cats, birds such as hawks or eagles, and reptiles such as snakes. Outside of India, humans do hunt and kill Indian Palm Squirrels, especially in those regions where they have become invasive.

In Western Australia, after Indian palm squirrels escaped from the Perth Zoo, an exclusion zone was established around the Perth area to prevent their spread. However, when they continued to escape, a pest control program was implemented to limit their numbers.

Reproduction, Babies, and Lifespan

Indian Palm Squirrels are solitary, and they only come together in the fall to mate. They chase each other, and the males have a mating call. The male’s sense of smell can tell him if the female is ready to mate.

Only the mother cares for the young. After a 34-day pregnancy, she gives birth to two or three young. They are born blind and hairless. They are weaned after 10 weeks and are ready to reproduce when they are nine months old. A male squirrel is called a buck, a female is a doe, and a baby is a pup, kitten, or kit.

Indian Palm Squirrels live about two to four years, though, like many squirrels, most that live in the wild die during their first year. The oldest Indian Palm Squirrel lived to be about five and a half years old.

Population: How many Indian Palm Squirrels are Left?

Biologists don’t really know how many Indian Palm Squirrels live in the wild, but it is a very abundant animal with an increasing population trend. The species is classified as “Least Concern.”