Flying Lemur aka Malayan Colugo in action

Jia-Wei Woo’s video clip of a pair of Malayan Colugo (Cynocephalus variegates), also known as Flying Lemur, was documented at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (below). It was late evening and the documentation was made just before the last rays of light disappeared at 1850 hours. As Jia-Wei recounted: “Lighting was thus suboptimal during filming. I had to film at a shutter of 1/80 to reduce motion blur doing handheld to allow easier tracking of the motion. I also used a video editor to brighten the video after capture.”

Colugo lives in tall trees, seldom descending to the ground. In fact it is a clumsy animal when on the ground as its pair of hind limbs are weak and unable to hold it up. It moves up trees using the sharp claws of its forelimbs to cling on to the tree trunk, then lurching forward, followed by the pair of hind limbs moving up. Once high enough on the tree trunk, it plunges forward into the air. It glides with the help of the pair of large skin membranes that extend from the body to the limbs. Once it lands on the next tree, it scrambles up the trunk until high enough to glide to another tree. The video footage documented three such glidings.

Jia-Wei Woo
Singapore
12th October 2018

Reference:
Lim, Norman, 2007. Colugo: The flying lemur of South-east Asia. Draco Publishing & Distribution Pte Ltd and National University of Singapore. 80 pp.

This post is a cooperative effort between Birds, Insects N Creatures Of Asia and BESG to bring the study of birds and their behaviour through photography and videography to a wider audience.