squirrel
a doe moving a kit between dreys
a kind of animal – mammal – rodent – four-legged – (mostly) plant-eating – small to medium with thick short grey, brown or pale green fur (hair) on the back and white under, cone-shaped head with round clear eyes, short ears, pointed snout (= mouth and nose part), short neck, elongated body, short front legs, and long strong back (hind) legs, long, bushy tail; size: from (the smallest – the African pygmy squirrel) 5 inches to (the largest – the Indian giant squirrel) 3 feet long including the tail; feeds on (eats) nuts, seeds, cones, fruits, fungi, and green vegetation, and occasionally (some species) small animals, including small snakes, lizards, insects, small birds and bird eggs; lives for 5-12 years; about 300 species found all over the world, except Australia (no native species)
pet squirrels
female ~~ doe
baby ~~ kit, kitten, pup; nestling
group ~~ dray; scurry; colony
voice (call) ~~ purr, chatter, scold, bark
home ~~ drey; den
The squirrels can be divided into three groups: ‘ground squirrels’, ‘tree squirrels’ and ‘flying squirrels’!
Ground Squirrel:
Richardson’s ground squirrel
Marmots, susliks and prairie dogs come under ‘ground squirrel’ group.
Ground squirrels are very social animals, living in burrows in large colonies. They have shorter and less bushy tails.
The ground squirrels can stand straight on their back legs in order to keep watch, and once a predator is sighted the squirrel on watch gives out a warning call to all others which immediately run into their burrows.
Arctic ground squirrel is the rodent that spends nine months of the year hibernating!
Tree Squirrels:
common tree squirrel
Dwarf squirrels, red squirrels, gray squirrels, fox squirrels, etc. come under ‘tree squirrel’ group.
The ‘eastern gray squirrel’ is the state mammal of North Carolina, USA.
The ‘gray squirrel’ is the state mammal of Kentucky, USA.
Tree squirrels are the ones that come to our minds when we think of squirrels!
Tree squirrel group is the largest of the three squirrel groups!
Though ‘tree squirrels’ live in trees, they also spend most of the time on ground.
Red squirrel does (mothers) are known to adopt (take care of) the pups/kits of their neighbours, mostly within their relatives.
flying squirrel
Kashmir flying squirrel, northern flying squirrel, southern flying squirrel, groove-toothed flying squirrel, hairy-footed flying squirrel, woolly flying squirrel, smoky flying squirrel, greater flying squirrel, etc. belong to this ‘flying squirrel’ group.
Flying squirrels do not fly like birds flapping their wings. In fact they do not have any wings. They have thick loose skin flaps that join the front legs with the hind legs, and when the squirrels jump from a branch of a tree to a branch of another tree, the flap opens up like a parachute and enables the squirrels to glide in the air! They can ‘fly’ about 150 feet in one jump! They have sharp claws on their feet to hold the tree trunk or branch once they land on it!!
1.
squirrel (noun) =
(a) a peculiar person
(b) a hoarder (a person who stores or hides lots of things, especially useless things – from the habit of the squirrel which hides or buries seeds, nuts and cones in the ground for later use, and most of the time forgets where it has buried them)
2.
to squirrel (verb) =
(a) to go round and round; to move about quickly
(b) (usually with the word ‘away’) to store, to hoard something for a particular purpose
3.
(a) as lively as a squirrel
(b) as nimble as a squirrel
4.
must hunt squirrels and make no noise = to make inquiries secretly
5.
squirrelly or sqquirrely = (of somebody) restless, jumpy, nervous; eccentric, crazy, odd
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