May 28 2012

Mary’s Monday Metazoan: Startling!

Categories:

Organisms

by PZ Myers

(via Wikimedia)

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31 comments

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1

Ichthyic

28 May 2012 at 7:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

“I am Squirrel, hear me roar…”
2

Glen Davidson

28 May 2012 at 7:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Poor thing’s rusting away before our very eyes…

Glen Davidson
3

Ogvorbis

28 May 2012 at 7:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Amazing how alert the little rodents can look.
4

evader

28 May 2012 at 8:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Booootiful!
5

'Tis Himself

28 May 2012 at 8:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

A tree rat.
6

Charlie Foxtrot

28 May 2012 at 8:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

LINK!!!
7

autumn

28 May 2012 at 9:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

So is that a punk squirrel or an emo squirrel?
8

Wowbagger, Vile Demagogue

28 May 2012 at 9:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Oh, I wonder what’s new on the blo…SQUIRREL!
9

Aquaria

28 May 2012 at 10:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

We only have the gray ones here, rather than these beautiful squirrels. So cute!
10

cybercmdr

28 May 2012 at 11:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Awww, no godbots? I was hoping to find some nuts here!!!
11

Gregory in Seattle

28 May 2012 at 11:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@cybercmdr #10 Will these do? (Possibly NSFW.)
12

magistramarla

29 May 2012 at 12:09 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Sorry, PZ. Gregory’s squirrel is more startling than Mary’s Monday Metazoan.
Unless…. Perhaps PZ’s squirrel has just caught sight of Gregory’s squirrel?
13

amblebury

29 May 2012 at 12:11 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Squee!
14

Nick Johnson

29 May 2012 at 12:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I don’t know if you care, but the RSS feed is now up to _9_ – count them, 9! – ads in the trailer of every post, which makes it longer than most of the posts, and the site is sprouting popunder adverts.
15

Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven

29 May 2012 at 1:32 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I’m suddenly reminded of my daughter’s pretend-play narrative, in which the fairies and Tiny People who live in the forest like to eat “squirrel ham.”
16

scottjordan

29 May 2012 at 2:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

cybercmdr @#10:

Awww, no godbots? I was hoping to find some nuts here!!!

That’s the acorniest pun I’ve heard in a while. :P
17

thorgolucky

29 May 2012 at 2:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Fluffy tail! Fluffy tail!
18

Ichthyic

29 May 2012 at 3:07 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I don’t know if you care

they don’t.

if YOU do, get adblock plus.

if you feel guilty, send your favorite blogger a donation.
19

Nick Johnson

29 May 2012 at 3:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

That’s a false dichotomy. I know PZ has cared about intrusive advertising in the past; overzealous ads drive readers away, or cause them to use ad blockers, neither of which are good for the site.
20

adamcolley

29 May 2012 at 3:16 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Ah, a red squirrel

Not seen one of those in the flesh since I was a kid, they’ve been wiped out by the invasive grey ones where I am -.-

Still found in some places though, particularly Scotland
21

davem

29 May 2012 at 3:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I haven’t seen a red squirrel since I lived in Germany in the 60′s. I miss Tufty. There are still a few pockets in the UK where they are protected from the imported North American Grey Squirrel.

Re RSS: What ads in the feeds? I’m not seeing any at all (using liferea under linux). I *am* seeing the comments from all the active threads all mixed together – that’s been borked since day 1. If I enter the feed URL directly into the chrome address bar, it just shows the articles – no comments or feeds. Seems that the reader itself has an effect.
22

unclefrogy

29 May 2012 at 3:26 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I , my self am of mixed feelings about the wild animals that are living in the urban setting I find myself in. While they are often beautiful and sometimes called cute They are often destructive to the things we have and do. I have lost fish in outside tanks to possums and racoons and some rodents (squirrels?) ate so much of the bark of a lime tree that it died. they all will tear into roofs for shelter. so I wish I did not have to deal with the conflict inside my head.

uncle frogy
23

crocswsocks

29 May 2012 at 3:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I’ve seen that picture before. It’s one of the high-quality pictures-of-the-day/month/year on Wikimedia Commons.
24

josephnobles

29 May 2012 at 3:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

There is a god-bothering ad showing up on the site. The one I clicked to is from everystudent.com:

http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html

It promised me six good reasons to believe in God. They were all pretty dumb reason to believe in God. All of the “isn’t it amazing we’re all alive in one of the few spots in the universe capable of sustaining life” or the “Jesus is the only one who CLAIMED he was God” variety.

The one on this page (from the same website) promises me logical, rational reason for believing Jesus to be God. I’m not holding out any hope.
25

birgerjohansson

29 May 2012 at 4:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

We need urban capybaras! Genetically modified, carnivorous ones.
“Look what a cuteAAAARRRGH! The critter bit off my arm!”
26

Moggie

29 May 2012 at 5:34 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I don’t know how red squirrels compare with greys, personality-wise, but around here the greys pretty much mug the tourists for food. Seriously, stand in our local park holding something edible, and a squirrel will climb you for it.
27

littlejohn

29 May 2012 at 6:29 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

They have squirrels that color in my native West Virginia. We call them, with great creativity, “red squirrels.” But they’re noticably smaller than gray squirrels. They’re also fiesty. They will chase the bigger grays and bite them on the ass for no apparent reason. The red ones are too small to bother hunting, but the gray ones are very sweet and tender.
28

mobius

29 May 2012 at 7:52 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

dun…dun…DUNNNNNNNNN
29

timgueguen

29 May 2012 at 8:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

He has an appropriate expression for these parts. “Humans believe in this God thing? Wild!”
30

RFW

29 May 2012 at 10:16 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

The local red squirrel is the Douglas squirrel, Tamiasciurus douglasii. Unlike most squirrels, which are very vocal and chatter at intruders, the population here on Vancouver Island is notoriously shy and retiring. In all my years here (forty and counting) I’ve seen one exactly four times, and one of those was a regular at a friend’s bird feeder.

Regrettably, some fool introduced the gray squirrel perhaps thirty years ago. The grays, being non-territiorial, drive the Douglas squirrels out of their habitats, but even worse spread diseases fatal to the little red guys.
31

tomforsyth

31 May 2012 at 12:16 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I’m in Seattle, and the local Douglas squirrels here (which aren’t very red at all) absolutely hold their own against the greys – I’ve seen them chase off greys twice their size. And they are real screamers, and very persistent – they will happily sit on a tree outside your bedroom and screech at you for hours from sunrise until you finally get up, open the window, and hurl things at them. I’m not sure why such single-mindedness is evolutionarily advantageous, but whatever they’re doing, they seem to be doing it right, because they’re everywhere.

They do have one crucial local advantage – they can fit between the bars of the “squirrel-proof” bird feeders we put up. Of course after sitting there feeding their faces for an hour, they can sometimes have a bit of trouble getting back out.