Govt. dethrones national mammal giant squirrel

The government had decided to remove the grizzled giant squirrel as the national mammal of Sri Lanka, given that it is an animal that caused much crop damage through its voracious eating habits, the Minister of Agriculture, Mahinda Amaraweera, said yesterday.The Minister said that a number of farmers’ associations have asked him to delist the giant squirrel as the national mammal.

The farmers say that the grizzled giant squirrel is one of the biggest threats to crops and they can’t do anything against it because it is the national mammal.Minister Amaraweera said the government was sensitive to the issue and plans to replace the grizzled giant squirrel with an endemic mammal.

“I will talk about this matter with all stakeholders including the Consultative Committee on National Heritages. We are thinking about replacing the grizzled giant squirrel with the Sri Lankan leopard,” the minister said. (RK)