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slgwv / Photos

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.
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9 comments

Guydel said:

Adorable !
5 years ago ( translate )

Gudrun said:

They are cute:-) And of course they know how to beg successfully;-)
5 years ago

Pam J said:

I LOVE THEM !!
5 years ago ( translate )

Jeff Farley said:

An excellent capture. Thank you for posting to FFF.
5 years ago

William Sutherland said:

Wonderful capture and PIPs!

Admired in:
www.ipernity.com/group/tolerance
5 years ago

slgwv said:

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

Gudrun replied to slgwv:

I didn't know about plague, not good at all!
5 years ago

slgwv replied to Gudrun:

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

Gudrun replied to slgwv:

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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