Intra- and inter-familial behaviour of Glaucomys volans (rodentia) following parturition.

The remarkably strong propensity in female flying squirrels (Glaucomys volans) for retrieving their young has been noted by several naturalists . In one instance (Stack 1925) a female climbed up the pant-leg of an observer who had removed the young from a nest; she took four babies from the observer's hand and carried each of them to another tree cavity. During my own field work I have often observed female G . volans behave in this way ; they have removed young even from my pocket. The retrieving behaviour is so strong that I began to rely on it in capturing lactating females, which attempted to retrieve the young placed in a trap, bag, or even a sock . The females seem to be attracted primarily by the sounds emitted by the young. The sounds apparently need not be very precise. Even approximate imitations of them by this observer induced females to search around in the observer's clothing and around the face . The sounds sometimes appear to be ultrasonic, i.e. the babies can be seen going through the motions of making the sound and the female responds, but nothing can be heard by the human observer . In this regard the young appear to be similar to those of other rodents (Zippelius & Schleidt 1956 ; Hart & King 1966) . Odour and visual stimuli also seem to be important . In retrieving, the female flying squirrels behave much like females of other rodents (Beach & Jaynes 1956; Eibl-Eibesfeldt 1963 ; Richards 1968) . The baby is grasped by the leg, head, or the nearest extremity ; the female turns the baby around in her fore-feet and grasps it firmly by the thigh, shoulder, or membrane (Plate I, Fig . 1). As the young mature, they are usually grasped by the membrane while their legs encircle the female's head . Similarly to Sciurus vulgaris (Eibl-Eibesfeldt 1963), flying squirrels handle nesting material and nuts much like they handle their young (Plate II, Fig . 2) . During experiments, in spite of the fact that the young were handled extensively, the females