Northern flying squirrels glide between trees on a furred membrane stretched from wrist to ankle, gliding rather than truly flying, and Pennsylvania holds one of the species’ isolated southern populations in its higher-elevation forests. All 13 Pennsylvania records come from GBIF rather than iNaturalist, which fits a nocturnal glider that’s genuinely difficult to photograph and more often confirmed through trapping surveys.
Records cluster most heavily in November, likely reflecting when survey work happened rather than any surge in squirrel activity, with scattered reports across most other months. NatureServe ranks the species S1, critically imperiled, in Pennsylvania, a much sharper concern than its secure global rank, underscoring how thin this relict population runs at the southern edge of its range.
Full species profile
