Oh, look...
...a baby squirrel prairie dog ground squirrel...
The front page story in today's MRT is about the city's plans to reduce the population of prairie dogs. The treeware version is accompanied by a very good photo of a little critter, looking all cute and cuddly*. Unfortunately, said critter is not a prairie dog, it's a ground squirrel.
It's difficult to tell for sure from the camera angle, but I'm pretty sure said animal is a spotted ground squirrel, which has random white spots on its back (as opposed to the neat rows of spots found on the chipmunk-like Mexican ground squirrel).
Ground squirrels don't rise to the same nuisance level as prairie dogs, although they still aren't welcome by ranchers or gardeners. They're also much more skittish than 'dogs. Our new back yard is now being visited by at least one ground squirrel, and thus far he's proven too wily to be captured on camera. (But I'll get him, sooner or later).
*Don't buy that "cute and cuddly" image. Ground squirrels are mean, vicious, straight-razor-totin' creatures, and they'd as soon bite off your finger as look at you. Trust me on this; I still have the scar on my right hand from a too-close encounter with one when I was a mere youth in Fort Stockton. I was just sure the little guy wanted to be my friend. In reality, he wanted only to drink my blood. I did have the last laugh, however, as the rabies test invariably proves fatal to the subject.
Cute as they may be, I wouldn't advise risking your own safety or those around you for one of them. He was probably hopped up on illegal squirrel drugs anyway.
Posted by: Eric at April 23, 2008 01:30 PMThere is absolutely no evidence linking illegal squirrel drugs with rabid squirrel/prairie dog behaviour and so far it hasn't affected me much either!
Posted by: Damien Franco at April 23, 2008 02:50 PMIf any of your fine readers would like some of their very own they can drop by my little corner of the world and help themselves to as many as they can catch. They can take a mole or two while they are at it.
Posted by: lyle at April 23, 2008 03:58 PMDo they make good eating? I mean, prairie dog has to be better than groundhog, but is it as good as ground squirrel? Maybe the city just needs to publish better recipes. Of course, maybe that would only work in my state.
"Get your fork, Ma! We's goin' 'Gone to Texas'! They's got dem prairie dogs ripe for the eatin'!"
Posted by: manasclerk at April 23, 2008 04:04 PMThat seems an awful lot like profiling, Eric, and that's just wrong. Just wait until the Nat'l Association for the Advancement of Squirrely Critters (NAASC) gets ahold of you!
Posted by: Rob O. at April 23, 2008 04:05 PMLyle, I didn't know that moles were indigenous to our area. According to the excellent Mammals of Texas, they're found only in East Texas and parts of the northern Panhandle. Although, they also say that they've been spotted in Presidio County, so I guess anything's possible.
Manasclerk, long time, no hear! And thanks for adding me into the mix for searches for "ground squirrel recipes." That should liven up the clientèle around here a bit.
Rob, I wondered who'd be the first to point that out. There goes my shot at the White House.
Posted by: Eric at April 23, 2008 05:37 PMYes, those pesky moles are all over the Panhandle. Watching my father-in-law make war on moles on the farm was akin to a Caddy Shack remake by the stars from Hee Haw.
Posted by: Deborah at April 23, 2008 11:12 PMa Caddy Shack remake by the stars from Hee Haw.
Ha! I'd pay to see that. Although a remake of "Hee Haw" by the stars of "Caddyshack" might be even better.
Posted by: Eric at April 24, 2008 06:53 AMAbout the publisher
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I had to laugh at the photo in the MRT this morning, too. I've seen that very ground squirrel! He stood and faced me as I drove west on Wadley south of Air Park. I slowed ( to the irritation of the driver behind me), awaiting Don Quixote's scurried retreat as I approached but he held his ground! My stomach lurched as I hoped my wheels straddled him. His flattened carcass probably ended up as a smear on the new asphalt. I'm afraid he truly dreamed The Impossible Dream.
Posted by: Phyllis at April 23, 2008 11:00 AM