Ardilla voladora del norte
Glaucomys sabrinus
Mamífero
Ardilla nocturna de los bosques de coníferas que planea entre troncos gracias a una membrana tendida de la muñeca al tobillo y que se orienta con una cola ancha y aplanada. Su importancia para el bosque es sobre todo subterránea: se alimenta en gran medida de trufas, los cuerpos fructíferos de los hongos micorrícicos que envuelven las raíces de las coníferas, y dispersa las esporas en sus excrementos. La ardilla es la vía por la que esos hongos llegan a un árbol nuevo, de modo que su vínculo con las coníferas es en realidad a tres bandas.
Conservación
Ampliamente distribuida y sin problemas de conservación en el bosque boreal, pero las poblaciones del sur de los Apalaches son otra historia: son relictos aislados en los bosques de picea y abeto de altura desde la última glaciación, separados del área principal y tratados por separado como subespecies propias. Lo que las amenaza es la pérdida y la fragmentación de esa estrecha franja de conífera de montaña, no una presión sobre la especie en su conjunto.
Plantas en el catálogo
Plantas de refugio · 7
Balsam fir forest is core northern flying squirrel range, and the species dens in cavities and in the dense witch-broom growths that fir broom rust (Melampsorella caryophyllacearum) induces on fir branches - a defect from a timber point of view and a nest site from the squirrel one. Marked plausible rather than documented because the denning association is reported for fir-spruce forest generally rather than as a published record on Abies balsamea specifically.
Dens in cavities in these forests and feeds heavily on truffles, the underground fruiting bodies of the mycorrhizal fungi that sheathe Douglas fir roots. It passes the spores in its droppings, so it helps carry the fungal partner the tree depends on to new ground.
Dens in cavities in these stands and glides between the trunks at night. Its truffle-heavy diet also disperses the spores of the mycorrhizal fungi hemlock roots depend on, so the tie runs through the soil as well as the canopy.
Dens in cavities and old woodpecker holes in these stands and glides between trees at night. Its main food is hypogeous truffles, so it disperses the spores of the mycorrhizal fungi that grand fir roots depend on - a relationship that runs underground rather than through the cones, and one reason old rot-hollowed firs are worth leaving standing.
The tightest wildlife tie on this species, and a conservation one. Northern flying squirrels feed heavily on truffles - the fruiting bodies of the mycorrhizal fungi sheathing conifer roots - and disperse the spores, so the relationship runs three ways between squirrel, fungus and tree. Two isolated southern subspecies depend on high-elevation red spruce and northern hardwood forest: the Carolina northern flying squirrel, federally listed endangered in 1985 and still listed, and the West Virginia northern flying squirrel, listed the same year and successfully DELISTED in 2013 after habitat recovery. Restoring red spruce is the stated mechanism in both cases, and more than 7,455 acres of West Virginia habitat were created, protected or restored in the five years after delisting.
Dens in cavities and witches-broom clumps in spruce-fir stands and glides between trees at night. Its relationship with the fir runs partly underground: it feeds heavily on truffles and disperses the spores of the mycorrhizal fungi that the fir roots depend on, so the tree and the squirrel are linked through the soil as much as through the branches.
Dens in cavities in these stands and glides between them at night. Its truffle diet disperses the spores of the mycorrhizal fungi on fir roots, a relationship that runs underground rather than through the cones.
Distribución
Bosques de coníferas y mixtos de Alaska y Canadá, hacia el sur por las Montañas Rocosas y Sierra Nevada, alrededor de los Grandes Lagos y Nueva Inglaterra, y por los Apalaches. Desde la separación en 2017 de la ardilla voladora de Humboldt, muchas autoridades tratan las poblaciones de la costa del Pacífico como una especie distinta, de modo que esta ficha describe el concepto más restringido posterior a esa división.
Fuentes y citas
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Usa esta cita para el registro de fauna de Plotwright. Usa las tarjetas de fuentes de abajo para explorar las referencias que informaron su taxonomía, distribución, conservación, plantas hospederas, forraje y hábitat.
Plotwright. (n.d.). Ardilla voladora del norte (Glaucomys sabrinus). Retrieved 2026, August 20, from https://plotwright.com/wildlife/northern-flying-squirrel
Fuentes utilizadas para este registro
Este registro se elaboró a partir de las fuentes de abajo.
Animal Diversity Web: Glaucomys sabrinus
Species account for gliding, nocturnal habits, the hypogeous-fungi diet and spore dispersal, cavity nesting, and the isolated Appalachian populations.
GBIF: Glaucomys sabrinus
GBIF backbone key 2437331 is an exact accepted match in family Sciuridae. Note the backbone carries NO record for Glaucomys oregonensis, so GBIF occurrence data for this name still includes the Pacific coastal populations that the 2017 split moved to Humboldt’s flying squirrel.
iNaturalist: Glaucomys sabrinus
iNaturalist taxon 46266 is the active species record and DOES recognise the split, carrying Glaucomys oregonensis separately as taxon 553059. Its range data is therefore the narrower concept, and differs from GBIF on the Pacific coast.
Wikipedia: Northern flying squirrel
Corroborating reference for the truffle diet and spore dispersal, the 2017 species split, and the relict Appalachian subspecies.