Main Characteristics

Pen-Tailed Tree Shrews have a slender build and a long tail. They have well developed senses of hearing, smell and vision.

Habitat

Pen-Tailed Tree Shrews can be found in the forests of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Diet

Pen-Tailed Tree Shrews are omnivores and they feed on a variety of insects, small vertebrates, fruit, nectar and seeds.

They are one of only seven wild animals that are known to consume alcohol. Each night they spend up to 2 hours drinking naturally fermented nectar from the bertam palm. Despite this consumption of alcohol, the Pen-Tailed Tree Shrew does not become intoxicated which suggests that the alcohol is metabolized in a different way than that used by humans.

Breeding

After a gestation period of approximately 50 days, a litter of 3 - 4 young are born. At birth the young are blind and hairless, but they are able to leave the nest when they are a month old.

Tree Shrews reach sexual maturity at around 4 months old and they generally breed throughout the year with no defined breeding season.

Subspecies

Subspecies of the Pen-Tailed Tree Shrew are:

Ptilocercus lowii continentis
Ptilocercus lowii lowii

Interesting Facts

Tree Shrews have the highest brain to body mass ratio of any animal, even higher than humans.

Similar Animals

Slender Tree Shrew
Mindanao Tree Shrew
Painted Tree Shrew
Nicobar Tree Shrew
Palawan Tree Shrew
Indian Tree Shrew
Northern Smooth-Tailed Tree Shrew
Bornean Smooth-Tailed Tree Shrew