Vanishing act

[The Snark]

It took him/her 2 days to put away that entire papaya. Note the extra tan dot on it's right flank that enabled me to tell this one from the others. The commonality of these animals with the primates is notable in their paws and the ability to spread and flex their toes individually.

 

[jecraque]

Oh... those ear tufts!!! Too cute.

 

[PlaidJaguar]

Super cute! Is that a type of squirrel?

 

[The Snark]

Himalayan or more commonly Burmese Striped Squirrel.

 

[catfishrod69]

It would probably be closer to our chipmunks, or ground squirrels right?

 

[The Snark]

It would probably be closer to our chipmunks, or ground squirrels right?

Yes. Classification of squirrels from chipmunks confuses the heck out of me. There's no solid rule of thumb to go by for the casual observer.

 

[catfishrod69]

Yeah im not sure how exactly they classify them. I know the chipmunks around here you rarely see in trees. They usually only go a couple feet up, and thats normally to get over an obstacle.

 

[The Snark]

Briefly (and with some degree of pain) I researched the difference between ground squirrels and chipmunks. You have ground squirrels and fully arboreal chipmunks, just to confuse things more. We are talking DNA here. The most interesting thing, to me, is the symbiosis between the chipmunck and certain fungi (symbiotic mycorrhizal association).

 

[jecraque]

Briefly (and with some degree of pain) I researched the difference between ground squirrels and chipmunks. You have ground squirrels and fully arboreal chipmunks, just to confuse things more. We are talking DNA here. The most interesting thing, to me, is the symbiosis between the chipmunck and certain fungi (symbiotic mycorrhizal association).

Please, do elaborate.

 

[The Snark]

Squirrels and Chipmunks are in the same family, Sciuridae, with Chipmunks in the Marmotini tribe with (possibly) 1 sub tribe and one genus. The squirrels have (possibly) five subfamilies and seven tribes. Or so it was believed. Scientists are now reordering the entire classification structures using DNA.

Symbiosis. Some squirrels and nearly all Chipmunks are inveterate hoarders and most Chipmunks choose to hoard and eat their way through the winters instead of hibernating. The Chipmunk genus, Tamias, is Greek for hoarder/collector. The animal eats various fungus and defecates the spores producing fungi colonies around and sometimes in their nests - producing an ongoing self replenishing food source.

 

[catfishrod69]

Thats crazy! I have never even heard of arboreal chipmunks. Around here we have squirrels- fox, red, grey, flying, and then chipmunks.

Briefly (and with some degree of pain) I researched the difference between ground squirrels and chipmunks. You have ground squirrels and fully arboreal chipmunks, just to confuse things more. We are talking DNA here. The most interesting thing, to me, is the symbiosis between the chipmunck and certain fungi (symbiotic mycorrhizal association).

---------- Post added 12-28-2013 at 08:28 AM ----------

Which i have seen them do many times. Sit out in a treestand for 12 hours straight, and you get to see these little guys doing all kinds of things. But its usually a straight line from food to hole in ground.

Chipmunks choose to hoard and eat their way through the winters instead of hibernating.

 

[jecraque]

Thanks, Snark! I hadn't heard much about the reordering or the fungal association. I must confess my mammalogy is less than up to date.

 

[The Snark]

It appears pretty obvious that the newly developed methods of DNA testing is going to shed a lot of light on our planet's evolutionary progress and shake a number of trees as this advances. Examples: the elimination of a 4th species of cobra in Thailand. The honey fungus of southern California that was first thought to be independent colonies but turned out to be the same organism over 20 miles across. It's going to be very interesting when they are able to catalog and cross match the dinosaurs as they are now doing with the primates. Imagine the entire evolutionary tree of the dinosaur showing where the bird and reptile diverged.