The Malabar Giant squirrel – double the size of their grey relatives and measuring up to 36 inches (91.5 cm) from head to tail – lives deep in the forests of India. The athletic animals can leap an incredible 20 feet (6 m) between trees. Photographer Kaushik Vijayan, 39, snapped the animals in their native habit to produce these stunning images. Kaushik, from Kerala State, India, said: “Up until that point I had never heard about a squirrel like that or seen one. The sight was an absolute feast for my eyes. The squirrels fascinated me and I got excited to capture this beauty on my camera”. (Photo by Kaushik Vijayan/South West News Service)

People walk along a street with long-tailed macaques in Lopburi, north of Bangkok November 29, 2015. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

A ring-tailed lemur sunbakes at Melbourne Zoo in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on December 21 2016. (Photo by Julian Smith/EPA)

Vickie Leuenberger (L) practices with a mermaid tail with AquaMermaid founder Marielle Chartier Henault in a pool in Montreal, February 19, 2015. The school teaches kids and adults how to swim wearing mermaid tails, and offers mermaid-themed parties. (Photo by Christinne Muschi/Reuters)

The tail of a stranded whale is pictured on the beach of De Haan, Belgium on October 25, 2018. (Photo by Francois Lenoi/Reuters)

“A Mothers Tail”. A baby cub pulls on his mother's tail to get attention. Photo location: Masai Mara, Kenya. (Photo and caption by Tori Marsh/National Geographic Photo Contest)

A Thai wildlife department official carries a long-tailed macaque to a cage at a village in Bangkok, Thailand, September 21, 2015. Thai authorities were relocating the long-tailed macaques on Monday to lessen conflicts with the local community. (Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters)

Canoeists are framed by the tail of a breaching whale in Antarctica in April 2023. The photographer, from California, writes: “It was probably a once-in-a-lifetime moment”. (Photo by Jiahong Zeng/Solent News)