Habitat
Flying squirrels require a forest that includes adequate denning and feeding areas. Dens are usually tree cavities. Tree cavities are most numerous in old forests where wood rot, frost cracking, woodpeckers, and carpenter ants have made cavities. Witches' brooms, clumps of abnormal branches caused by tree rust diseases, are the most common denning sites of flying squirrels in Interior Alaska. When temperatures begin to drop sharply, flying squirrels move out of cavities and into brooms. In the coldest periods of winter, they form aggregations of two or more individuals in the brooms and sleep.
Southern flying squirrels are found in southeastern Canada, the eastern United States, and south as far as Mexico and Honduras.They are also sociable and tend to live together in groups.
