treeshrew
edyong | December 8, 2009On Nicobar Island, in the Indian Ocean, a most unusual hunting party is searching for food. Through the branches of the forest, the tiny Nicobar treeshrew scuttles about searching for insects. They're followed by the racket-tailed drongo, a small bird that picks off juicy morsels flushed out by the foraging treeshrews. So far, this isn't unusual - many distantly related animals forage together, either because they net more food or because they can watch out for predators.
But this alliance has a third an altogether more surprising member - a sparrowhawk. This bird of prey is five times…
bleimanb | July 29, 2008The pentailed treeshrew has recently been identified by scientists as the "biggest drunk" in the animal kingdom. Frank Wiens of the Department of Animal Physiology at the University of Bayreuth in Germany smelled the distinct odor of booze in the Segari Melintang Forest Reserve in Western Malaysia. He and his team identified the bertam palm's flowers as producing a nectar that ferments into alcohol. They then decided to set up cameras to document the creatures who visited the palm. At night, slow lorises and pentailed treeshrews spent the most time consuming the palm's liquid, with the…