Shekru near Mahabaleshwar (Giant Malabar Squirrel)

[Kishore Kadam]

Date and time: 10th March 2019, 10.45AM
Place: ~15km from Mahabaleshwar on the way to Satara (Mahabaleshwar Satara Rd)

While travelling from Mahabaleshwar to Pune via Satara, stopped due to ruckus on a roadside mango tree. Noticed the reddish animal on the tree which was different than the typical monkeys found in the area. So I watched carefully, monkeys were chasing a full size Shekru (Giant Malabar Squirrel). Monkeys were distracted by us and left shekru alone. I watched it for 2-3 minutes and took some pictures.

I am still trying to be familiar with smart focusing on the camera and it was refusing to focus on the animal because of the tree branches and leaves. So set the aperture to 16 and took some shots.

BTW, Looks like Shekru was trying to eat mango tree bark or raisin/gum.