Daily activity budget of plantain squirrel (Callosciurus notatus) through field observation

A study to determine the daily activity of Plantain squirrel (Callosciurus notatus) was been carried out in orchard area at Merapoh, Pahang from 25th July until 23rd August 2019. Direct observation method by using a binocular was used to observe the activities done by this species from 0730 to 1130 hours and 1430 to 1830 hours. To record C. notatus activity, the predetermined activity categories were used. The results revealed that, C. notatus used most of their time to forage (57%), followed by being inactive (30%), travelling (7%), other activities (5%), interaction (0.79%), and the least is grooming (0.57%). The squirrels are mostly actives doing their activities during morning compared to the evening. Wilcoxon signed-ranked test was used to demonstrate the significant different between morning and evening of each activities. Due to unfavourable condition such as weather and noisy sound around the orchard area lead to the above results. Hopefully this study can help other researches to understand more about the daily activity of C. notatus.