Kansas marks the western edge of the southern flying squirrel’s range, and its 6 records hug that edge tightly. Cherokee County, in the far southeast corner, supplies 2 of them, and the rest come from Jefferson, Johnson, Douglas, and Crawford counties, all in the state’s eastern tier, where oak and hickory woods still follow the river corridors. West of there the trees thin into open tallgrass and the records stop.
An after-dark animal on a sparse calendar
This is a nocturnal glider that most Kansans never see, even where it lives overhead. The 6 records fall in February, March, April, and August, too few to show a real seasonal pattern. Winter doesn’t quiet these squirrels: they don’t hibernate, and on cold nights they den up together in tree cavities. A calendar built largely from nest-box checks and deliberate night surveys says as much about who went looking as about the squirrels. It’s also worth noting that the most recent confirmed Kansas record dates to March 2022.
Vulnerable at the range edge
NatureServe ranks the species S3 in Kansas, vulnerable, a more cautious grade than its secure standing rangewide. Out on the range edge, every patch of mature deciduous woods matters, and the wooded river corridors and timbered fingers reaching into the tallgrass are its Kansas foothold. It holds no separate state listing.
