November 96 Nelson THE WILD SIDE by Marta K. Nelson illustrated by David Besenger Flying squirrels live just about everywhere in Missouri, but are active only at night.
Bats are the only true flying mammals.
But a flying squirrel is an expert hang glider. It almost never runs along the ground like other squirrels. Instead, it climbs to the top of a tall tree and launches itself into the air, gliding downwards to the bottom of another tree, over and over again, until it gets where it's going. Although it usually makes shorter trips, it can go as far as 150 feet in one glide. That's about half the length of a football field - not bad for an animal the size of a chipmunk.