Archive for the 'International' Category

That which sits in the shadow of its tail

Published at July 7, 2007 in International and India. 0 Comments

My friends Kate and Anoop are on vacation in India and Kate sent this submission of an adorable Indian BLM:

Here is either a chipmunk or an Indian squirrel that Anoop and I saw today in Bangalore, India, across the street from his grandmother’s house. It is hard to see but it has stripes on its back like an American chimpmunk though it is built more like an American squirrel. Actually, we saw four of them but this is the only one in a picture. They are surprisingly shy for living in the center of a city of 10 million people. Apparently sometimes they get all rabid and bite people, but I think this one is pretty safe.

This submision got me to thinking, what is the difference between a chipmunk and a squirrel? I know what a standard American chipmunk looks like, and I know what a common American squirrel looks like, but I have also seen something in America called a ground squirrel, which frankly looked rather like a chipmunk, and so now having thought about it I am all confused as to what is going on.

So, I headed over to Wikipedia, and since I want this site to be an educational one, I will now pass on what I learned:

According to Wikipedia, “Chipmunk is the common name for any small squirrel-like rodent species of the genus Tamias in the family Sciuridae” and “A squirrel is a small or medium-sized rodent of the family Sciuridae…The Sciuridae family also include flying squirrels, as well as ground squirrels such as the chipmunks, prairie dogs, and woodchucks.” So basically, chipmunks and squirrels are two BLMs in the same family. Also, chipmunks can evidently be referred to as “ground squirrels”, and so can prairie dogs and woodchucks, which makes no sense because neither of those animals is anything like a squirrel, as far as I am concerned.

As I mentioned previously, I have encountered an animal that I think is actually called a “ground squirrel” and out of curiosity, I looked it up as well: “The ground squirrels are all members of the Sciuridae most closely related to the genus Marmota and included in the tribe Marmotini. It includes six known genera. Although a type of ground squirrel, the chipmunks of the genus Tamias frequently spend time in trees.”

I found this entry to be rather uninformative, as well as rather lacking, gramatically.

In conclusion:

  1. Kate, in reference to your submission, it seems it would be correct for you to have said:
    1. “Here is a chipmunk…”
    2. “Here is an Indian squirrel…”
    3. “Here is a single entity which is a chipmunk AND an Indian squirrel…”

    and PS, how do you know where the squirrel/chipmunk’s grandmother lives?

  2. The word squirrel comes from the Latin word sciurus which comes from the Greek word skiouros which is a compound of two words and can be loosely translated to mean “That which sits in the shadow of its tail”.
  3. And, finally, the submitted photos:

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Machu Beacchu.

Published at July 3, 2007 in International and Peru. 0 Comments

I just got this fabulous submisison from my old friend Whitney Huston, who I went to college with, and have not talked to in ages. This submission is exciting for so many reasons. First, it was nice to hear from Whitney. Second, she lives out in California somewhere and I am happy to know that news of beaverlikemammals.com has traveled that far. Third, this qualifies as our second international sighting, and Peru is very exotic. Woo hoo!

Attached is a photo of Sam Douglas having a chat with a beaver-like mammal. The beaver-like mammal photograph was taken at Machu Picchu not so long ago. It was a very cute BLM, one was more chatty then the other (probably b/c the other was napping). They were friendly too - very unphased by all of the human attention they were getting.

PS the animal is actually a chinchilla, according to the guides there (overheard, since we didn’t hire any) and although they (the guides) are notorious for making shit up (or at least it seemed to us), they might be right. Which makes this not as much a BLM, and more like a chinchilla. Even if it’s not a chinchilla, it admittedly looks more like a rabbit than a beaver. But, I wanted to submit something and this was the only sighting I had on film. Being from Oregon though, which is, as I’m sure you know, the beaver state, I’ve seen my fair share of actual beavers. I just don’t have any caught on tape.

Thanks so much for the submission Whitney! And if you are ever home in Oregon, please keep an eye out for any beavers you might want to post about.

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First international sighting!

Published at April 5, 2007 in International and Canada. 0 Comments

Greg writes:

In the summer of 1995 a friend and I were staying at a lodge in North
Ontario (just like the CSNY ditty).

We were told of an old tradition where in one takes a map of the
local land, picks a lake, of which there are literally hundreds,
leaves at sunrise, and attempts to find that lake and canoe it by
sundown of the same day.

We set out early, avoiding the black bears at the dump, and making
fun of moose tracks that looked like genitalia, eating blackberries…

After hours of four wheeling both on and off mining roads, bush
whacking through briars, and assembling bridges made from mattresses
and discarded bookshelves, we found our oasis.

It was a small puddle of a pond-like lake surrounded by a perimeter
of 50 yards of dense brush and aspens. We were exhausted and pissed. We took a break beside an earthen dam before making the descent down the hill to the water.

While sitting quietly, staring off into nothingness, we heard a
“SLAP!!!!” come from just over our shoulders. We turned to see a
beaver moving across the back flow of the small pool formed by the dam.

As soon as we turned and glimpsed it’s oily head, it dipped beneath
the surface and entered its lodge.

Thanks Greg for submitting our first international sighting!