Today is Squirrel Appreciation Day. Squirrels inhabit every continent on earth, except Australia. National Geographic says that there are over 200 squirrel species and that:
“Like other rodents, squirrels have four front teeth that never stop growing so they don’t wear down from the constant gnawing. Tree squirrels are the types most commonly recognized, often seen gracefully scampering and leaping from branch to branch. Other species are ground squirrels that live in burrow or tunnel systems, where some hibernate during the winter season.”
Squirrels range in size from the 5″ long African Pygmy Squirrel below (aww!) –
To the 36″ long Indian Giant Squirrel at the top of the page (eek!)
Here’s a map of where squirrels live (also from National Geographic:
And here are the tattoos which are surprisingly nice:
In honor of National Chocolate Day, sappy cat blogging features the York Chocolate Cat.
The York Chocolate (or simply York) is an uncommon and relatively recent American breed of show cat, with a long, fluffy coat and a tapered tail and most of them are mostly or entirely chocolate-brown. The breed was named after New York state, where it was established in 1983. This breed was created by color-selecting domestic long-haired cats of mixed ancestry.
Here is a map from the Cougar Network showing the expansion of cougars across the U.S.
The solid green areas depict established populations. The red and blue dots indicate sightings.
Long ago the Inca called them puma, but today — though they belong to only one species — they have many names. In Arizona they are known as mountain lions; in Florida they are panthers, and elsewhere in the South they are called painters. When they roamed New England, they were called catamounts. In much of the Midwest they are known as cougars, and that is the name everyone understands.
An adaptable, generalist species, the cougar is found in most American habitat types. It is the second heaviest cat in the Western Hemisphere, after the jaguar. Solitary by nature and nocturnal, the cougar is most closely related to smaller felines and is nearer genetically to the domestic cat than true lions. [How about that?]
I consider this expansion a natural way to manage the deer population.
There is a plethora of cats on Sappy Cat Blogging this Friday . . .
Found in Down East magazine, this tabby named Slim commutes from Badger’s Island, Maine to Portsmouth, NH over the Memorial Bridge. Click here for his story.
Thanks to my friend, Cindy for these racing cats.
And to HMS Defiant for this little cat clip from Moonrise Kingdom. Click on the image for the video. If you have not seen the film, look it up on Netflix.
Tattoo Tuesday is about jellyfish – because I think they pretty and interesting. I remember gathering and studying little pink ctenophores – which are comb jellies – relatives of jellyfish, when I was in college on a biology field trip to Chesapeake Bay. We tromped around the Bay in February, gathering specimens and studying them in the Marine Fisheries Lab nearby. I was particularly taken with the comb jellies. Their rows of cilia undulated down their bodies, propelling them along. Fascinating to watch.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 