Colugo facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Colugos Temporal range: Upper Palaeocene – Recent
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Infraclass:	Eutheria
Superorder:	Euarchontoglires
Order:	Dermoptera Illiger, 1811

Colugos are gliding mammals in the order Dermoptera.

There are two living species, found in south-east Asia. They are also called 'flying lemurs', though they are not lemurs (all lemurs are in Madagascar). They can glide long distances, as they have a thin membrane stretched to the ends of the tail and each limb.

Life style

Colugos live in the tropical rain forests of southeast Asia. Their diet includes leaves and young shoots. During the day they rest high in the trees, clinging to trunks or hiding in tree holes. At dusk they become active, gliding from trunk to trunk like sheets of paper blown on the wind. The young are carried clinging to the flight membrane.

Habitat

Colugos range from Burma, Indochina and southern Thailand to peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java. They also occur throughout Borneo. A second colugo species inhabits the southern Philippines.

Images for kids

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  Feet of Philippine colugo.

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  Lower jaw (Galeopterus).

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  Claw of dead Malaysian colugo

See also

In Spanish: Dermópteros para niños