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Small Animal That Looks Like a Chipmunk

Small Animal That Looks Like a Chipmunk

Family of rodents

This article is almost the squirrel family (Sciuridae) as a whole. For other uses, see Squirrel (disambiguation).

Squirrels

Temporal range: Late Eocene – Recent

Sciuridae.jpg
Various members of the family Sciuridae
Callosciurus prevostii Eutamias sibiricus Tamiasciurus hudsonicus
Sciurus niger Urocitellus columbianus Paraxerus cepapi
Geosciurus inauris Marmota sp. Cynomys ludovicianus
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Suborder: Sciuromorpha
Family: Sciuridae
Fischer de Waldheim, 1817
Blazon genus
Sciurus

Linnaeus, 1758
Subfamilies and tribes

Squirrels are members of the family unit Sciuridae, a family unit that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, footing squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, amongst others), and flying squirrels. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa, and were introduced by humans to Australia. [one] The earliest known fossilized squirrels date from the Eocene epoch, and among other living rodent families, the squirrels are most closely related to the mountain beaver and to the dormice.[ citation needed ]

Etymology

The discussion "squirrel", kickoff attested in 1327, comes from the Anglo-Norman esquirel which is from the Quondam French escurel, the reflex of a Latin word sciurus, which was taken from the Ancient Greek give-and-take σκίουρος (from σκία-ουρος), skiouros, "shadow-tailed", referring to the long bushy tail which many of its members have. [2] [3]

The native Old English word for the squirrel, ācweorna, survived but into Middle English language (as aquerne) earlier being replaced. [4] The Erstwhile English word is of Mutual Germanic origin, cognates of which are still used in other Germanic languages, including the German Eichhörnchen (atomic of Eichhorn, which is not as frequently used), the Norwegian ikorn/ekorn, the Dutch eekhoorn, the Swedish ekorre and the Danish egern.

A grouping of squirrels is called a "dray" [5] or a "scurry". [six]

Characteristics

Reaching out for nutrient on a garden bird feeder, this squirrel can rotate its hind feet, allowing information technology to descend a tree caput-first.

Squirrels are generally pocket-size animals, ranging in size from the African pygmy squirrel and least pygmy squirrel at 10–14 cm (3.ix–five.5 in) in full length and just 12–26 g (0.42–0.92 oz) in weight, [vii] [8] to the Kingdom of bhutan behemothic flying squirrel at up to 1.27 1000 (four ft 2 in) in total length, [nine] and several marmot species, which tin can weigh 8 kg (18 lb) or more. [10] [xi] Squirrels typically have slender bodies with very long very bushy tails and large eyes. In full general, their fur is soft and silky, though much thicker in some species than others. The coat color of squirrels is highly variable between—and frequently fifty-fifty within—species. [12]

In most squirrel species, the hind limbs are longer than the fore limbs, while all species have either iv or five toes on each foot. The anxiety, which include an oftentimes poorly developed pollex, take soft pads on the undersides [13] and versatile, sturdy claws for grasping and climbing. [14] Tree squirrels, unlike most mammals, tin can descend a tree head-beginning. They do so past rotating their ankles 180 degrees, enabling the hind feet to point backward and thus grip the tree bark from the reverse direction. [15]

Squirrels live in about every habitat, from tropical rainforest to semiarid desert, avoiding just the high polar regions and the driest of deserts. They are predominantly herbivorous, subsisting on seeds and basics, but many will consume insects and fifty-fifty small vertebrates. [16]

As their big eyes betoken, squirrels take an excellent sense of vision, which is especially of import for the tree-abode species. Many as well have a good sense of bear upon, with vibrissae on their limbs as well as their heads. [13]

The teeth of sciurids follow the typical rodent pattern, with large incisors (for gnawing) that abound throughout life, and cheek teeth (for grinding) that are set back backside a broad gap, or diastema. The typical dental formula for sciurids is 1.0.i.3 1.0.1.3 . [17]

Many juvenile squirrels die in the first year of life. Adult squirrels can take a lifespan of v to 10 years in the wild. Some tin survive 10 to 20 years in captivity. [18] Premature death may be caused when a nest falls from the tree, in which case the mother may abandon her young if their body temperature is non correct. Many such babe squirrels have been rescued and fostered by a professional person wildlife rehabilitator until they could exist safely returned to the wild, [19] although the density of squirrel populations in many places and the constant care required by premature squirrels means that few rehabilitators are willing to spend their time doing this and such animals are routinely euthanized instead.

Stated purposes of squirrels' tails, to do good the squirrel, include: [20]

  • To proceed pelting, wind, or cold off itself.
  • To cool off when hot, by pumping more than blood through its tail.
  • As a counterbalance when jumping near in copse.
  • As a parachute when jumping.
  • To indicate with.

The hairs from squirrel tails are prized in wing line-fishing when tying line-fishing flies. A special quality of squirrel tail hair is that information technology is all guard hairs, not undercoat.

When the squirrel is sitting upright, its tail folded up its back may end predators looking from backside from seeing the characteristic shape of a small mammal.

  • Squirrel enjoying in the sun.

  • Squirrel in Chandigarh.

  • Squirrel about Chandigarh.

  • Squirrel on mango tree.

Behavior

Squirrels mate either once or twice a year and, following a gestation catamenia of three to six weeks, give nascence to a number of offspring that varies by species. The young are altricial, being built-in naked, toothless, and blind. In most species of squirrel, the female alone looks after the young, which are weaned at 6 to ten weeks and become sexually mature by the end of their starting time year. In general, the basis-home squirrel species are social, oftentimes living in well-adult colonies, while the tree-dwelling species are more lonely. [13]

Ground squirrels and tree squirrels are ordinarily either diurnal or crepuscular, [21] while the flying squirrels tend to exist nocturnal—except for lactating flight squirrels and their young, which have a period of diurnality during the summer. [22]

Feeding

Because squirrels cannot assimilate cellulose, they must rely on foods rich in poly peptide, carbohydrates, and fats. In temperate regions, early on bound is the hardest fourth dimension of twelvemonth for squirrels because the nuts they buried are showtime to sprout (and thus are no longer bachelor to eat), while many of the usual food sources have not yet become available. During these times, squirrels rely heavily on the buds of trees. Squirrels, being primarily herbivores, eat a broad variety of plants, besides every bit nuts, seeds, conifer cones, fruits, fungi, and dark-green vegetation. Some squirrels, notwithstanding, also consume meat, especially when faced with hunger. [xvi] [24] Squirrels have been known to consume pocket-size birds, young snakes, and smaller rodents, besides equally bird eggs and insects. Some tropical squirrel species have shifted almost entirely to a nutrition of insects. [25]

Squirrels, like pigeons and other fauna, are synanthropes, in that they do good and thrive from their interaction in homo environments. This gradual process of successful interaction is called synurbanization, wherein squirrels lose their inherent fear of humans in an urban surroundings. [26] When squirrels were almost completely eradicated during the Industrial Revolution in New York, they were subsequently re-introduced to "entertain and remind" humans of nature. The squirrel blended into the urban environment and so efficiently that when synanthropic behavior stops (i.eastward. people do not leave trash outside during peculiarly cold winters), they can become aggressive in their search for food.

Aggression and predatory behavior has been observed in various species of ground squirrels, in item the thirteen-lined ground squirrel. [27] For example, Bernard Bailey, a scientist in the 1920s, observed a thirteen-lined basis squirrel preying upon a young chicken. [28] Wistrand reported seeing this same species eating a freshly killed ophidian. [29] There has also been at least one report of squirrels preying on atypical animals, such as an incident in 2005 where a pack of black squirrels killed and ate a big devious canis familiaris in Lazo, Russia. [30] Besides, squirrel attacks on humans are exceedingly rare, but do occur. [31] [32]

Whitaker examined the stomachs of 139 thirteen-lined ground squirrels and found bird flesh in four of the specimens and the remains of a short-tailed shrew in i; [33] Bradley, examining the stomachs of white-tailed antelope squirrels, establish at least ten% of his 609 specimens' stomachs contained some blazon of vertebrate, mostly lizards and rodents. [34] Morgart observed a white-tailed antelope squirrel capturing and eating a silky pocket mouse. [35]

Taxonomy

Squirrel outside the Cleveland Museum of Fine art

A squirrel (Callosciurus erythraeus thaiwanensis) in Japan

The living squirrels are divided into five subfamilies, with about 58 genera and some 285 species. [36] The oldest squirrel fossil, Hesperopetes, dates dorsum to the Chadronian (late Eocene, about forty–35 one thousand thousand years ago) and is similar to modern flying squirrels. [37]

A multifariousness of fossil squirrels, from the latest Eocene to the Miocene, take not been assigned with certainty to any living lineage. At to the lowest degree some of these probably were variants of the oldest basal "protosquirrels" (in the sense that they lacked the total range of living squirrels' autapomorphies). The distribution and variety of such ancient and bequeathed forms propose the squirrels as a group may accept originated in Due north America. [38]

Apart from these sometimes little-known fossil forms, the phylogeny of the living squirrels is fairly straightforward. The three main lineages are the Ratufinae (Oriental giant squirrels), Sciurillinae and all other subfamilies. The Ratufinae comprise a mere handful of living species in tropical Asia. The neotropical pygmy squirrel of tropical South America is the sole living member of the Sciurillinae. The 3rd lineage, by far the largest, has a near-cosmopolitan distribution. This farther supports the hypothesis that the common ancestor of all squirrels, living and fossil, lived in North America, every bit these iii well-nigh ancient lineages seem to have radiated from there; if squirrels had originated in Eurasia, for example, i would expect quite ancient lineages in Africa, just African squirrels seem to be of more recent origin. [38]

The main group of squirrels also can be split into three subgroups, which yield the remaining subfamilies. The Sciurinae contains the flight squirrels (Pteromyini) and the Sciurini, which among others contains the American tree squirrels; the former have often been considered a carve up subfamily, only are at present seen as a tribe of the Sciurinae. The pine squirrels (Tamiasciurus), on the other mitt, are usually included with the master tree squirrel lineage, only announced to exist nearly as distinct as the flying squirrels; hence, they are sometimes considered a distinct tribe, Tamiasciurini. [39]

Two of the three subfamilies are of about equal size, containing between about 70 and 80 species each; the tertiary is most twice as big. The Sciurinae contains arboreal (tree-living) squirrels, mainly of the Americas and to a lesser extent Eurasia. The Callosciurinae is most diverse in tropical Asia and contains squirrels that are likewise arboreal, simply have a markedly different habitus and appear more "elegant", an effect enhanced by their frequently very colorful fur. The Xerinae—the largest subfamily—are fabricated up from the mainly terrestrial (ground-living) forms and include the big marmots and the pop prairie dogs, amid others, too as the tree squirrels of Africa; they tend to be more gregarious than other squirrels, which do not unremarkably live together in close-knit groups. [38]

Society

Squirrels are a cause for concern because they often cause electrical disruptions. Information technology has been hypothesized that the threat to the internet, infrastructure and services posed by squirrels may exceed that posed past cyber-attacks. [40]

See besides

References

  1. ^ Seebeck, J. H. "Sciuridae" (PDF). Fauna of Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 January 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  2. ^ "squirrel, n.". The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd. ed.). Oxford University Press. 1989. Retrieved 8 Nov 2010.
  3. ^ Whitaker & Elman (1980): 370
  4. ^ "Squirrel". Online Etymology Dictionary . Retrieved 7 February 2008.
  5. ^ Lipton, James (1991). An Exaltation of Larks . Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-30044-0 .
  6. ^ Universe in Your Pocket past Joel Levy, published by Barnes & Noble, Inc.
  7. ^ Kingdon, J. (1997). The Kingdon Guide to African Mammals . Academic Press Express, London. ISBN 0-12-408355-2 .
  8. ^ Payne, J.; C.F. Francis (1998). A Field Guide to the Mammals of Borneo (3 ed.). The Sabah Society. p. 243. ISBN 967-99947-1-six .
  9. ^ Choudhury, A. (2002). "Petaurista nobilis singhei: Get-go record in India and a notation on its taxonomy". The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 99 (1): 30–34.
  10. ^ Kryštufek, B.; B. Vohralík (2013). "Taxonomic revision of the Palaearctic rodents (Rodentia). Part two. Sciuridae: Urocitellus, Marmota and Sciurotamias". Lynx, Northward. S. (Praha). 44: 27–138.
  11. ^ Armitage, K.B.; Blumstein, D.T. (2002). "Body-mass diversity in marmots. Holarctic marmots as a factor of biodiversity". In K.B. Armitage; 5.Yu. Rumiantsev (eds.). Holarctic Marmots equally a Gene of Biodiversity. ABF Publishing Firm. pp. 22–32.
  12. ^ Tree Squirrels, Wildlife Online, 23 November 2010.
  13. ^ a b c Milton (1984)
  14. ^ "Rodents". How Stuff Works. 22 April 2008. Retrieved xxx December 2016.
  15. ^ Thorington, Richard W.; Koprowski, John L.; Steele, Michael A.; Whatton, James F. (2012). Squirrels of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-1421404691 .
  16. ^ a b Squirrel Place Archived 27 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine. squirrels.org. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
  17. ^ The Offset of the Historic period of Mammals Kenneth D. Rose (2006) ISBN978-0-801-88472-6 p. 326
  18. ^ Thorington, Richard W.; Koprowski, John Fifty.; Steele, Michael A.; Whatton, James F. (2012). Squirrels of the World. Johns Hopkins Academy Printing. p. 12. ISBN 978-1421404691 .
  19. ^ "Squirrel Rehab" . Retrieved 19 August 2017.
  20. ^ "Why do squirrels take bushy tails? | Basics About Squirrels".
  21. ^ "Red & Gray Squirrels in Massachusetts". MassWildlife. Massachusetts Segmentation of Fisheries and Wildlife. Archived from the original on 17 May 2013. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
  22. ^ Törmälä, Timo; Vuorinen, Hannu; Hokkanen, Heikki (1980). "Timing of circadian activity in the flight squirrel in central Finland". Acta Theriologica. 25 (32–42): 461–474. doi: x.4098/at.arch.lxxx-42 .
  23. ^ Merja Laavola: Eläinten elintasosairaudet näkyvät Seurasaaressa. Vartti Etelä-Helsinki, Sanoma Kaupunkilehdet, 2010. (in Finnish)
  24. ^ "Russian squirrel pack 'kills dog'". bbc.co.uk . 1 December 2005. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
  25. ^ Richard W. Thorington, Katie Ferrell – Squirrels: the animal respond guide , JHU Press, 2006, ISBN0-8018-8402-0, ISBN978-0-8018-8402-3, p. 75.
  26. ^ Peiman, Kathryn (June 2016). "Sublethal consequences of urban life for wild vertebrates". Environmental Reviews. 24 (4): 416–425. doi:x.1139/er-2016-0029. hdl: 1807/74036 .
  27. ^ Friggens, M. (2002). "Carnivory on Desert Cottontails by Texas Antelope Ground Squirrels". The Southwestern Naturalist. 47 (1): 132–133. doi:x.2307/3672818. JSTOR3672818.
  28. ^ Bailey, B. (1923). "Meat-eating propensities of some rodents of Minnesota". Journal of Mammalogy. four (2): 129. doi:10.1093/jmammal/4.2.129.
  29. ^ Wistrand, E.H. (1972). "Predation on a Snake past Spermophilus tridecemlineatus". American Midland Naturalist. 88 (2): 511–512. doi:10.2307/2424389. JSTOR2424389.
  30. ^ "Russian Squirrel Pack Kills Dog". BBC News . Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  31. ^ "Cornwall squirrel 'pack' attacks male child, iii". BBC News . Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  32. ^ Lafrance, Adrienne. "When Squirrels Assault - A cautionary tale". The Atlantic . Retrieved 7 Baronial 2022.
  33. ^ Whitaker, J.O. (1972). "Nutrient and external parasites of Spermophilus tridecemlineatus in Vigo County, Indiana". Journal of Mammalogy. 53 (iii): 644–648. doi:10.2307/1379067. JSTOR1379067.
  34. ^ Bradley, West. Thousand. (1968). "Food habits of the antelope ground squirrel in southern Nevada". Journal of Mammalogy. 49 (1): 14–21. doi:10.2307/1377723. JSTOR1377723.
  35. ^ Morgart, J. R. (May 1985). "Carnivorous behavior by a white-tailed antelope ground squirrel Ammospermophilus leucurus". The Southwestern Naturalist. xxx (2): 304–305. doi:10.2307/3670745. JSTOR3670745.
  36. ^ Wilson, D.East.; Reeder, D.K. (2011). "Class Mammalia Linnaeus, 1758. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level nomenclature and survey of taxonomic richness" (PDF). Zootaxa. 3148: 56–60. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3148.ane.9.
  37. ^ Emry, R. J.; Korth, Due west. W. (2007). "A new genus of squirrel (Rodentia, Sciuridae) from the mid-Cenozoic of Due north America". Periodical of Vertebrate Paleontology. 27 (iii): 693–698. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[693:ANGOSR]2.0.CO;ii.
  38. ^ a b c Steppan & Hamm (2006)
  39. ^ Steppan et al. (2004), Steppan & Hamm (2006)
  40. ^ Goud, Naveen (18 January 2017). "Squirrels crusade more financial harm to critical Infrastructure than Cyber Attacks". Cybersecurity Insiders . Retrieved 23 July 2022.

Further reading

  • Milton, Katherine (1984): "Family unit Sciuridae". In: Macdonald, D. (ed.): The Encyclopedia of Mammals: 612–623. Facts on File, New York. ISBN0-87196-871-1.
  • Steppan, Scott J. and Hamm, Shawn M. (2006): Tree of Life Web Project – "Sciuridae (Squirrels)". Version of 13 May 2006. Retrieved ten December 2007.
  • Steppan, South. J.; Storz, B. L.; Hoffmann, R. S. (2004). "Nuclear Dna phylogeny of the squirrels (Mammalia: Rodentia) and the development of arboreality from c-myc and RAG1". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 30 (3): 703–719. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00204-v. PMID15012949.
  • Thorington, R.West. and Hoffmann, R.Southward. (2005): "Family Sciuridae". In: Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference: 754–818. Johns Hopkins Academy Press, Baltimore.
  • Whitaker, John O. Jr. and Elman, Robert (1980): The Audubon Guild Field Guide to North American Mammals (2d ed.). Alfred Knopf, New York. ISBN0-394-50762-two

External links

Small Animal That Looks Like a Chipmunk

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirrel

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