Cream-coloured giant squirrel

The cream-coloured giant squirrel, also called the pale giant squirrel (Ratufa affinis), is a large tree squirrel of the genus Ratufa that lives in forests of the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo and nearby small islands. It is one of the largest squirrels, with a head-and-body length of 31 to 38 centimetres, a tail of 37 to 44 centimetres and a weight of 875 to 1,500 grams. Most animals are cream to very light orangish-brown above and whitish-cream below, but on Borneo, where it is the only giant squirrel, many have medium-dark grey or almost black upperparts. It lives mostly in the upper canopy of lower montane and secondary forests, frequenting dipterocarp trees, and is active by day, alone or in pairs. Seeds are its main food, supplemented by leaves, fruits, nuts, bark, insects and eggs. The species is near threatened and vulnerable to habitat degradation, and it has probably been extirpated in Singapore, where it was last seen in 1995.