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slgwv

slgwv club

Posted: 20 Sep 2019

Taken: 27 Aug 2019

4 favorites     9 comments    443 visits

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Keywords

USA •
Northwest •
9055 •
Oregon •
ground squirrel •
Otospermophilus beecheyi •
Wallowa Mountains •
Callospermophilus laterals •

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Well-fed

Well-fed
One of a host of ground squirrels hanging around the upper tram station (where the bar and grill also are!) on Mt. Howard, Wallowa Mountains, Oregon. They are used to tourist handouts, as is obvious from their plumpness, and are disconcertingly tame. Most seem to be California ground squirrels (Otospermophilus beecheyi), based on the white-spotted gray coat, but there are also some golden-mantled ground squirrels (Callospermophilus lateralis), which are often confused with chipmunks due to their similar markings. The insets show some other views.

Smiley Derleth, William Sutherland, Pam J, Gudrun have particularly liked this photo

9 comments - The latest ones
 Guydel
Guydel club
Adorable !
5 years ago.
 Gudrun
Gudrun club
They are cute:-) And of course they know how to beg successfully;-)
5 years ago.
 Pam J
Pam J club
I LOVE THEM !!
5 years ago.
 Jeff Farley
Jeff Farley
An excellent capture. Thank you for posting to FFF.
5 years ago.
 William Sutherland
William Sutherland club
Wonderful capture and PIPs!

Admired in:
www.ipernity.com/group/tolerance
5 years ago.
 slgwv
slgwv club
Thanks, everyone! They were _too_ tame, really--they can bite! It could be bad news if a little kid went to pick one up. They also often carry plague.
5 years ago. Edited 5 years ago.
Gudrun club has replied to slgwv club
I didn't know about plague, not good at all!
5 years ago.
slgwv club has replied to Gudrun club
Plague got to San Francisco sometime around 1900--an ironic consequence of faster transportation technology, as the rats didn't all die during the Pacific crossing! A human epidemic in S.F. was nipped in the bud, because the significance of rats & fleas was already understood, but the bacillus got into the local rodent population. From there it's gradually spread thruout much of the West. You'll see lots of warning signs around campgrounds, picnic areas, and so on. And, if you've been outside and start feeling very sick, particularly if you noticed rodents, don't delay seeing a doctor.
In one of his last published novels (ca. 1986) the late science-fiction writer and M.D. Alan E. Nourse described the outbreak of a mutant plague bacillus in the Pacific Northwest, and its subsequent global transmission via air travel. The thriller is called _The Fourth Horseman_ , the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse being pestilence, and it was ahead of its time! The general scenario Alan described is the stuff of serious disaster planning now. (However, he did tell me he made up the part about "dead rodent counts." ;)
5 years ago. Edited 5 years ago.
Gudrun club has replied to slgwv club
It's rather frightening how fast diseases can spread these days. Plague is something we considered medieval and long past...

Even in our moderate climate we have mice carrying hanta virus, ticks transmitting borreliosis and encephalitis and now even Aedes mosquitoes and the first cases of West Nile fever. Dengue is expected to follow...
5 years ago.

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