Lariscus- Genus name for 4 species of striped ground squirrel found in southern Thailand, Malaya, and Indonesia.
Long, Kim- Author of the book Squirrels: a Wildlife Handbook.
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Marmot- There are 14 currently recognized species of marmots, which are large ground squirrels found
throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Marmots look pretty similar to woodchucks, because woodchucks are marmots. Marmots are rodents, closely related to both ground squirrels and prairie dogs. Scientists call these species sciurid (sci-your-ed) rodents.
Marmots, of course, are the kings of the sciurid rodents. Woodchucks don't "chuck" wood (whatever that means!). According to David Barash, a professor at the University of Washington, woodchucks may have gotten their name by early an colonial corruption of the Cree Indian name "otcheck". Interestingly, "otcheck" probably didn't refer to woodchucks, but to a forest-dwelling weasel. At least 3 woodchucks are reputed to predict the weather. At least one of them tends to get it right. Sing the Groundhog Day Song--Oh Murmeltier! Groundhog day is the only US holiday named after an animal. Turkey day doesn't count. All 14 species of marmots are true hibernators. During the winter their body temperature drops to a few degrees Celsius. They don't keep their body temperature down all winter, rather, they wake up (people who study this call it "arousal") every week or so for a bit and then go back into "deep torpor" (deep hibernation). Woodchucks live pretty stoic and solitary existences. Males live alone and females live alone. Males tend to mate with neighboring females, and their offspring tend to leave home before their first hibernation. All other species of marmots are much more social. In some species, adults live together in large (5-10+) groups. While woodchucks tend to be pretty silent, their cousins tend to be quite vocal and emit loud alarm whistles or chirps at the slightest provocation. Thus a common name of North America's yellow-bellied marmot is the "whistle pig". Some species Eurasian marmots vary the rate at which they whistle as a function of terrain. Prof. Alexander Nikolskii's long-term studies have shown that marmots call faster when they live in areas with more vertical relief and broken sight lines. Marmots on the steppes tend to call more slowly. Marmots tend to have a highly developed sense of place. Many species of marmots live in stunning alpine settings. Hoary marmots are grizzled and the name does not reflect their character: some populations of them are monogamous. Vancouver Island marmots live on Vancouver Island in Canada and are critically endangered. With about 150 remaining marmots, they are one of the most endangered species in the world. Vancouver Island marmots are chocolate brown with a white spot on their chest. They are one of the larger marmots and are among the most photogenic marmots. In Pakistan there is a species called the golden marmot. Herodotus, reporting from the area where golden marmots now live, noted that great "gold ants" would throw gold out from the ground. This report later drew investigators to study golden marmot behavior. Herodotus reported that people in this area used the marmots to harvest gold. Finally, in November 1996, a French researcher "found" people who still use marmots to locate gold thus solving the "mystery of gold ants". Read about these findings in articles from The New York Times, CNN-On Line, and
from Time Magazine. Locals have folktales about how golden marmots got their whistles. Popular Urdu comics have been written about golden marmots. Info provided by: http://falcon.cc.ukans.edu/~marmota/lore.html
Yellow-bellied Marmot
Marmota- Genus name for the 14 species of marmot.
Menetes- Genus name for a single species, the Berdmore's ground squirrel, which occurs from Burma to Indochina and Thailand.
Microsciurus- Genus name for 5 species of pygmy squirrel found in southern Central America and Northern South America.
Myosciurus- Genus name for a single species, the African pygmy squirrel, which is the smallest member of the squirrel family. They live in Cameroon and Gabon.
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Nannosciurus- Genus name for a single species, the Black-eared pygmy squirrel, which lives in Indonesia.
Nut- One of a squirrel's favorite foods.
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P
Paraxerus- Genus name for the 12 species of bush squirrel inhabiting most of Africa.
Petaurillus- Genus name for the 3 species of pygmy flying squirrel found in Borneo and Malaya.
Petaurista- Genus name for the 5 species of giant flying squirrel found throughout southeast Asia.
Petinomys- Genus name for 9 species of flying squirrel found in southeast Asia.
Prairie dog- A Large Ground squirrel with the genus name Cynomys. Their home is grassy rolling plains of the western US from Montana south to Mexico. Prairie dogs have four sharp teeth, golden brown fur, powerful short legs and arms, a four inch tail, and are about a foot tall when standing. Despite their doggy name, prairie dogs are members of the squirrel family. These ground-dwelling squirrels dig a complex series of tunnels deep into the ground -- called a town. Hundreds of prairie dogs live together in towns that can cover hundred of acres of land. One town discovered in the 19th century was as big as Belgium. All the town members feed on the grasses, roots, leaves and flowers that grow nearby. They don't drink a lot -- these creatures get all the water they need right from the plants they eat. It's a good thing -- the prairie can be a dry place. Prairie dogs depend on each other and their burrows to survive. Deep beneath the earth you're safe from prairie fires, coyotes, and hawks. Prairie dogs don't just let any stranger into their homes, so they "kiss" and "hug" when they meet to identify each other as family. No two burrows are alike. Prairie dogs dig tunnels as deep as fifteen feet deep, and make sure they have enough room for everyone in the family. Each tunnel is unique, but all burrows have an entrance, an exit, rooms for nesting, and a "flood room" -- a room dug into the ceiling at the bottom. If the burrow fills with water, the flood room forms a pocket of air for waiting until the water drains away. Members of a prairie dog town take turns keeping watch. If the watch dog sees danger, they sound an alarm call by stretching their heads into the sky and barking. No wonder they got the name "little dogs" by early settlers. An alarm call sends all of the prairie dogs into the burrow to hide until the coast is clear.
Prairie Dog
Prevost Squirrel- a species of squirrel, Callosciurus prevosti, found in Indonesia and introduced to other parts of the world as pets and zoo specimens.
Prevost Squirrel
Prosciurillus- Genus name for 5 species of dwarf squirrel found in the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
Protoxerus- Genus name for 2 species of giant squirrel found in from Liberia to Kenya and Angola.
Pteromys- Genus name for the 2 species of flying squirrel found from Finland to Japan.
Pteromyscus- Genus name for a single species, the Smoky flying squirrel, which inhabits southern Thailand to Borneo.
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Ratufa- Genus name for 4 species of the largest tree squirrels in the world. They inhabit most of southeast Asia. The "rat-" part of this genus name does not at all suggest any relation to rats; it is entirely coincidental.
Red Squirrel, American- The red squirrel is much smaller than either the fox or gray squirrel. Its overall body length, including tail, is about 13 inches. It weighs much less than a fox squirrel, about half a pound, on the average. The red squirrel is somewhat more colorful than either the fox or the gray squirrels. The tail is brownish red. The back and sides a lighter brownish red with gray highlights, the belly an off-white, and a prominent off-white ring around the eye.
Habitat preferred by the red squirrel is moist northern forests of coniferous trees such as spruce or fir. They will inhabit less dense, mixed forests of juniper, maple, basswood, and other deciduous trees but prefer continuous stands of trees unlike the fox squirrel who will inhabit open woodlands. American Red squirrels inhabit most of Canada and Alaska, and northern and western United States.
Red squirrels nest in tree cavities when they are available. Otherwise, nests are constructed on horizontal branches and are made of grass, bark, and twigs. This squirrel is highly territorial and will chase away gray, fox, and other red squirrels which intrude into its home range.
There are two breeding peaks for this squirrel. Adults may raise two litters per year in our region but may be limited to one further into the northern range. A gestation period is from 35 to 38 days followed by the birth of an average of 3-5 young.
Young eat solid food by the age of 5-6 weeks.
Unlike the fox and gray squirrel who eat primarily larger nuts, the red squirrel utilizes the smaller seeds of pines, maples, basswoods, and elms. Rather than being buried singly, these seeds are cached in large quantities in tree hollows, stumps, logs, or similar areas.
The most well-known natural enemy of the red squirrel is the pine marten, which inhabits northern coniferous forests. It is believed this is the only natural predator that would have any effect on the population of red squirrels. Since pine martens are
not commonly found in most areas, natural mortality, weather, habitat, and food availability are factors affecting overall
populations. Information provided by: Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
American Red Squirrel
Red Squirrel, Eurasian- The common species of squirrel found throughout Europe and northern Asia. He is the most widely spread squirrel species in the world. Like the Abert's squirrel, his ear tufts are a distinguishing feature. Below regards habitat selection for this species. A population of Eurasian red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) in south-central Sweden showed a strong preference for forest older than 35 years and with more than 25% Norway spruce (Picea abies). This preferred habitat constituted 24% of the study area. The proportion of avoided habitats was 30%, and the remaining 46% could be described as used but not preferred habitats. Given these proportions, the squirrels can be shown
theoretically to be able to reach all preferred patches by moving across the used, although not preferred habitat patches, or within the preferred ones. Males had larger home ranges (mean 121.6 ha) than females (mean 23.0 ha). Mean daily movement was 430 m for males and 180 m for females; the maximum movement was 2800 m for males and 680 m for females. Most of the preferred habitat occurred in fragments larger than the area requirement of an individual squirrel, and even the most isolated fragments were within a trivial range for squirrels. Therefore, we predict that the random sample hypothesis will give a good prediction of the effects of forest fragmentation on the red squirrel in this landscape. However, if the proportion of avoided habitats increases, isolation and fragment size might affect the population density of red squirrels and the population size would be smaller than predicted from the random sample hypothesis. Information provided by: Andren, H. & Delin, A. 1994.
Eurasian Red Squirrel
Rheithrosciurus- Genus name for a single species, the Tufted ground squirrel, which inhabits Borneo.
Rhinosciurus- Genus name for a single species, the Shrew-faced or Long-nosed squirrel, which inhabits Thailand, Malaya, Sumatra, and Borneo.
Rodent- Group of mammals which squirrels are classified as. Rodents are characterized by having chisel-like teeth used for gnawing. As evidenced by squirrels, not all rodents are dirty and disgusting.
Rodentia- The rodent order.
Rubrisciurus- Genus name for a single species, the Red-bellied squirrel, which inhabits the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
