Kentucky’s open databases hold 63 southern flying squirrel records, with reports turning up in nearly every month and across very different corners of the state.
At home in every Kentucky forest type
This species needs one specific thing, mature hardwoods with old woodpecker holes and other cavities to nest in, and Kentucky offers that across most of its landscape. Records come from the karst forest around Mammoth Cave National Park, the sandstone cliff country near Natural Bridge State Resort Park in the Appalachian Plateau, and the hardwood bottomlands of Land Between the Lakes in the far west. Few Kentucky mammals turn up across that much variety of terrain.
Huddled together through winter
Southern flying squirrels glide between trees at night to feed on nuts, seeds, fungi, and insects, caching food for leaner months. Once cold weather sets in, several individuals often crowd into a single tree cavity and huddle together for warmth, a habit that lets a small, nocturnal glider get through a Kentucky winter that would otherwise burn too much energy to survive alone.
Status in Kentucky
The southern flying squirrel is native to Kentucky, and NatureServe ranks it S5, secure. Its dependence on cavity trees rather than any one habitat type is exactly why it turns up from karst forest to sandstone cliff country to river bottomland alike.
