West Virginia Northern flying squirrel is a subspecies of the Northern flying squirrel. They require cool, high-elevation habitat like what can be found in the Allegheny Highlands. Northern flying squirrels can currently be found here as well as to the North up into Canada stretching west to the Rockies. What’s interesting is they cannot be found in between here and the North. Why? Well, back during the Ice Age, these squirrels could survive throughout here to Canada, but when things started heating up they could no longer survive the lower elevations in between. This caused there to be a gap in their range, restricting the individuals in the mid-Appalachians to the highest elevations. Based on genetics, they have determined that all remaining Northern flying squirrels originated from the populations in West Virginia. These tiny squirrels have the ability to glide (not truly fly) from high elevation to low using flaps of skin in between their legs called “patagia”. They feed on numerous items including truffles, lichen, seeds, cones and other botanicals that their mixed red spruce hardwood forests provide.