Anomalurus pelii
Silhouette: Jose Carlos Arenas-Monroy · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
Pel's flying squirrel or Pel's scaly-tailed squirrel (Anomalurus pelii) is a species of rodent in the family Anomaluridae. It is found in Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Ghana, where it lives in lowland tropical rainforests. It is named after Hendrik Pel.
The tropical forests of Africa were little explored by Europeans before the nineteenth century. Colugos and flying squirrels had been known from south eastern Asia and gliding marsupials from Australia earlier than this, but the discovery of the scaly-tailed squirrels of equatorial Africa was not made till the 1840s. British zoologist and collector Louis Fraser exploring the Niger basin brought a specimen of Lord Derby's scaly-tailed squirrel (Anomalurus derbianus) back to Britain. Compared to the previously known flying squirrels, this had two rows of large scales on the underside of the basal part of its tail. The flying membrane stretched from wrist to ankle and was supported by a cartilaginous strip which had its origin at the elbow. (The east Asian flying squirrels have a similar cartilage strip, but it terminates at the wrist.) The scaly tailed squirrels had an additional membrane extending from the ankle to part-way...
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kakum National Park | 🇬🇭 Ghana |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Pel's Flying Squirrel sighting in Kakum National Park on a given day, based on 12 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 4th most-seen of the 7 mammals we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Pel's Flying Squirrel in Kakum National Park on a given day, against about 10% in October and December, the lowest months. May–June and August have too few records to rate.
Between 6 and 9 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Pel's Flying Squirrel sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is mostly seen at night.
Only Kakum National Park, in our data
Kakum National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Pel's Flying Squirrel sightings: about 50% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Rodentia
The closest relatives of the Pel's Flying Squirrel that you can see in Kakum National Park (order Rodentia, Rodents) are Small Sun Squirrel (about 50%), Forest Giant Squirrel (about 40%) and Red-legged Sun Squirrel (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pel's Flying Squirrel is recorded against all the mammals logged in Kakum National Park (12 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
