the Gleithörnchen is the second rodent-group, that opened up in certain respects also the airspace for itself, beside the thorn-tail-croissants.
Gleitvermögen Gleithörnchen often are called also "flight-croissants." However, the "flight" of the Gleithörnchen is no active not flying, like Z. B. with the bats but a passive gliding from tree to tree. Always, gliding is interconnected with a height-loss. It therefore is more apt to speak of glide and from Gleithörnchen.
One can imagine the development of the Gleitvermögens well with the Gleithörnchen from at first purely tree-living in croissants if one looks at the jump-technology of tree-croissants. With wide jumps, they stretch out its arms and legs far and steer the jump sent with the tail. With the gradual originating the Gleithaut, also the jumps could increase the surface parachute-nicely and are extended more and more consequently; the pure jumping turned into a jump-sailing. The Gleitvermögen allows the Gleithörnchen a trouble-free place-change, they constantly don't need to run baumab and baumauf like other croissants. Above all, however, the glide makes also the swift and effective escape from enemies possible.
Is found with tree-croissants amazingly - like Z. B. the squirrel - with the newborn young, vestigial flight-skin-analogical skin fold, that later vanishes again.
The aeronautics of the Gleithörnchen is described at the example of the Assapan, a small North American Gleithörnchenart, and is represented.
Shape The full-hairy Gleithaut originates from already at the rear-head, includes the arms, then stretches itself up to the hind legs and completes at the tail-root. At each wrist, a gristly spur sits, that still supports the parachute-skin with the Ausspreizen. The bushy tail remains gleithautfrei, it is the rudder during the glide. The big eyes leave easily guessed that the Gleithörnchen are pure night-animals.
Way of life Gleithörnchen are forest-animals. With the continuous constricting of its habitat through the human being as distinctive Kulturflüchter, most Gleithörnchenarten retreat more and more. This is applicable especially also to our European or usual Gleithörnchen (Pteromys volans). In former times, it was supposed to have also component of the German fauna. Today, it retreats constantly farther eastward. In Eastern Europe, it only comes isolated in Poland, Finland and somewhat more frequently still in Russia before.
The old big trees become through the scheduled searching the forest-continuances ever rarer, in which the Gleithörnchen in abandoned woodpecker - and other tree-caves its apartment finds. Everywhere there, where these old tree-giants of the saw fall to the victim, irretrievably also the Gleithörnchen get lost. They don't find any more shelter in the subsequent Neuaufforstungen and protections ("lumber-plantations").
The fur of the European Gleithörnchens varies oberseits in different brown-sounds, in the winter, it gets a silvery shine additionally. These goblins are well half as big as our squirrel and rather playful. If they pursue the food-search not exactly, they sail from tree to tree and seek to hunt themselves mutually. its menu contains however also birds and eggs from buds, bark and Kerbtiere, forest-fruits, seeds.
Reproduction The reproduction of the Gleithörnchen is interesting. The males envelop the females with its Gleithaut during the combination like in a blanket namely. The females bring to the world, that still is blindly and very clumsy, boy once per year 2-4.
Enemies The natural enemies of the European Gleithörnchens are martens and owls. Above all forest-codgers succeed again and again with beating a Gleithörnchen on its nightly, silent flights before it can bring itself to safety with a jump.
System The subfamily of the Gleithörnchen is limited on the northern hemisphere. It is altogether 36 types familiar, that are classed as belonging to 13 types. The biggest representatives find themselves in the cat-big Riesengleithörnchen Südostasiens. While, how already mentions, most Gleithörnchen stubborn Kulturflüchter are, the Zwerggleithörnchen or Assapane got used to the proximity of the human being in North America.
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