Massachusetts’s occurrence tallies for the southern flying squirrel hold 202 records, and unlike most mammals in this atlas, they land in every month of the year without a strong seasonal swing.
Old trees on two sides of the state
This is a cavity-nester through and through, needing mature hardwood forest old enough to carry woodpecker holes and hollow limbs to den in. Both regions in its Massachusetts range supply that: the wooded uplands behind the coastal plain’s estuaries and salt marshes, from Parker River National Wildlife Refuge to Massasoit National Wildlife Refuge, and the forested hills of the central Worcester Plateau. Neither region holds this squirrel by accident; both still carry enough old-growth structure for den cavities to exist.
Seen by flashlight, not by daylight
Because it’s active only after dark, gliding tree to tree rather than running across open ground, the southern flying squirrel is easy to undercount next to the state’s daytime tree squirrels. In winter it often dens communally, several animals sharing one cavity and huddling together for warmth, which is part of why records here don’t fall off in the colder months the way a solitary species’ might.
Status in Massachusetts
NatureServe ranks the southern flying squirrel S5, secure, and it’s native to Massachusetts. Its steady, month-to-month record fits a species well matched to the state’s mature forest rather than one facing particular pressure, though its nocturnal habits mean most Massachusetts residents share their woods with it and never know.
