June 3, 2008

squirrel-like ≠ squirrel

Right, Cindy?

Tamias striatus, your Eastern Chipmunk, is a small squirrel-like rodent. Tamias is your chipmunk genus. Even though some people refer to members of the Tamias striatus species as ground squirrels, the critters are not squirrels.

Right, Cindy?

Oh, it doesn’t matter anyway. After Lena was done with it, somebody else came and hauled what was left off the deck, so there’s nothing to photograph. Except a little darkish stain.

posted by in animals, science | * | 7 comments 

comments

  1. Ian Todd Potter on June 3rd, 2008 at 5:49 pm

    If Wikipedia is to be believed, “squirrel” refers to a Family of animals, of which tamias is a member.

    As an analogy:
    squares : rectangles :: chipmunks : squirrels

  2. Deron Bauman on June 3rd, 2008 at 5:54 pm

    Sheila, I’d love to respond, but I think I just saw a woman step out of a Lexus carrying a Kalashnikova.

  3. Rick Neece on June 3rd, 2008 at 6:06 pm

    Hunh Unh!

  4. Sheila Ryan on June 3rd, 2008 at 6:10 pm

    Dang. And here I thought I had a grip on taxonomy.

  5. Sheila Ryan on June 3rd, 2008 at 6:12 pm

    Well, anyway, one particular member of Tamias striatus isn’t much of anything anymore.

  6. Cindy Scroggins on June 4th, 2008 at 8:27 am

    Beloved Sheila, I have no problem at all when a cat hunts and kills a squirrel. Oh, sure, it makes me sad and all–like when cats kill mockingbirds. But I see that as the natural order of things, and I don’t see it as my place to interfere. I had a cat once–a huge gray tabby–who was such a hunter that I feared for any unattended children in the neighborhood. That’s as it should be.

    People, on the other hand, have no business harming squirrels or chipmunks. Even those people with crooked teeth and misplaced eyes who eat the things.

    Deron, I’m watching you.

  7. Mary Jeys on June 4th, 2008 at 10:29 pm

    also, the squirrel conspiracy has to be curbed somehow, right?

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