BBC CREW IN CAPE TO FILM PROGRAM ON FLYING SQUIRRELS

The small, brown squirrels glide through the air with the greatest of ease.

John Scheibe never tires of watching the flying squirrels. The Southeast Missouri State University biologist has studied the animals for the past eight years, gaining international attention in the process.

A British Broadcasting Corp. television crew is in Cape Girardeau this week filming a 30-minute documentary about flying squirrels. The documentary will also focus on flying squirrels in Japan and Borneo that are larger than cats.

Southeast is one of five universities in the nation researching flying squirrels, Scheibe said.

Scheibe and several graduate students are studying the gliding patterns of the Southern flying squirrels.

Scheibe has watched the animals sail through the air on outstretched flaps of skin that extend between their wrists and ankles. The squirrels' tails are flat. "That serves as an airfoil as well," Scheibe said.

"The intriguing question is why they glide," said Scheibe. The answer may be simply that it is an efficient way to move through a canopy of trees, he explained.

It isn't unusual for the squirrels to glide for 30 meters. "I know they are capable of 60 meters as well," Scheibe said.

"They are capable of doing complete rolls in midair."

Southeast has 20 of the Southern flying squirrels, which it keeps in cages at Rhodes Hall of Science. The squirrels were caught by setting traps or wooden nest boxes in trees.

For the past year and a half, an old handball court at Houck Field House has served as a laboratory for observing the squirrels in flight.

The captive animals glide during daylight hours, but in the wild their gliding is strictly a nocturnal activity.

"They are preyed upon quite heavily by owls," Scheibe said.

Southern flying squirrels are common in Missouri. The squirrels often make their homes in attics.

The squirrels are small, weighing only 60 to 80 grams. They grow to about 8 inches in length, counting their tails.

BBC television producer Dr. Bernard Walton and cameraman Mark Yates spent several hours Wednesday afternoon amid the trees and meadow in Twin Trees Park, accompanied by Scheibe and a few graduate students.

Scheibe and his students brought along six of the squirrels so that the BBC could film the animals gliding through the air. A high-speed camera was used so that the gliding actions of the squirrels could be recorded at 40 times the normal film speed. When viewed the squirrels will be seen gliding in slow motion, Walton said.