The southern flying squirrel is a nocturnal glider, so its Louisiana records mostly represent a lucky sighting rather than routine observation. Occurrence databases hold 256 Louisiana records, most of them from GBIF, and that tally reflects where and when people happened to spot the animal, not how many actually live in the state.
A cavity-nester, not a burrower
Unlike Louisiana’s ground-burrowing chipmunks, the southern flying squirrel doesn’t need dry, diggable soil. It nests in tree cavities, most often old woodpecker holes, so it turns up just as readily in the bottomland hardwood and cypress-tupelo swamp forest of refuges like D’Arbonne National Wildlife Refuge in the northeast as it does in the upland pine and hardwood hills around Kisatchie National Forest and Fontainebleau State Park. Any Louisiana forest with enough mature trees and natural cavities can hold this glider, wet lowland or dry ridge alike.
Winter brings it into view
Louisiana’s monthly records swing hard, from just 3 in June and July to 50 in December. That pattern lines up with the species’ habits rather than any change in how many squirrels are around. Cold snaps push flying squirrels to den up in tree cavities and nest boxes near houses, sometimes in small huddled groups for warmth, and that’s when people are most likely to notice one at a bird feeder or hear scratching in an attic. In the muggy heart of a Louisiana summer, this strictly nocturnal glider mostly goes unseen.
Status in Louisiana
The southern flying squirrel is native to Louisiana, and USGS NAS doesn’t list it as introduced or invasive in the state. NatureServe ranks it S5, Secure, in Louisiana, the same secure standing it holds globally under its G5 rank.
