The Tree Shrew came to town

Tree Shrew
They belong to the order of Insectivores which is split into six families and the shrew belong to the Soricidae family.

 It has been a while since I last saw a Tree Shrew.  This morning I saw one pleasantly playing among the branches with its body and long tail drenched.  It is a permanent resident of the park and this squirrel-like animal is known to being confined on the island of Borneo. Being insect-eating mammal, it favours tiny insects and invertebrates.  This morning encounter lifted-up my spirit as I surveyed the park in light drizzle.  The weather has been very rainy the last few days and the rains has brought at least two flash floods during this week.  From my experience Tree Shrews are hard to photograph because they move fast among the trees and branches.  They however look very inquisitive especially at the flashes of the camera.

Taming of the shrew?

A juvenile tree shrew enjoying the Jackfruit for breakfast
Zone C

(Note: We all alive and kicking at the park.  But the Celcom internet service is considered dead.  This image took 1 hour to upload.)

Playful three little tree shrews

Tree shrews are curious about camera flashes

A curious one

 They are like a cross between a rat and a squirrel.  They are residents of the park but will not show themselves often.  Today I had the rare opportunity to see three of them having fun and games at the yellow cane palm and the oil palm branches.  As usual the tree shrews are always excited to see the camera flashes and somehow the flashes encouraged them to be curious and would not run away until their curiosity is answered.  This gave me the opportunity to phootshoot them in their playful mood.

Tree shrews playing fun and games on the oil palm branch..

Tree shrews are like a cross between a rat and a squirrel.

Tree shrew on a yellow cane palm

Mammalia watch album - Tree shrew

 I have seen two types of tree shrews at the park.  One is the Lesser tree shrew (Tupaia minor) which has a long tail and the other is bigger bodied and has reddish hairs.  The tree shrew is somewhat between a rat and a squirrel.  The Malays call tree shrews as  'Tupai tanah", literally to mean 'ground squirrel'.  'Tupai' in Malay means squirrel.  On one occasion, I was able to photoshoot the Lesser tree shrew while it was hunting for food in the daytime. It was apparent that it was curious at the camera's flash because each time the camera flashes it would step closer to me.  It was an opportunity of a life time and a most memorable moment of nature photography for me. 

Lesser Tree Shrew (Tupaia minor) or Pgymy tree shrew.

A differrent species of the Tree Shrew, with reddish hairs.