Northern Treeshrew

This is a video of a Northern Treeshrew (Tupaia belangeri) that was coming in from the forest to steal some food put out for the birds at Baan Song Nok, in Thailand. He would often leap and chase away the smaller birds, such as  laughingthrushes and partridges.











The treeshrews are small mammals native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. There are 20 species in 5 genera. Tupaia comes from the Malay word "tupai" which means squirrel.

Northern Tree Shrews are squirrel-like and they have a long bushy tail and a pointed snout.  Northern Tree Shrews mainly feed on fruit, seeds and insects, and rely on their well developed senses of vision, smell and hearing to detect prey.

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