Squirrel picturesApprentice Photoshop Pictures Contest - 29 image entries
Contest Directions: Photoshop this squirrel image (CLICK HERE to download) any way you wish. Examples may giving this squirrel some clothes or objects, putting the squirrel into some environment, movies, paintings. These are just some ideas.
You have 3 days to submit your entry. Submitting it early will give you plenty of time to read the critique comments and edit your image accordingly.
Many thanks to Jeff Jones and Stock Exchange for providing the source image.
[ browse best gallery pictures ] Tags: squirrel
Jackpot: 1st place: $1.5, 2nd place: $0.9 , 3rd place: $0.6 , 4th place: $0.3
Started: 6/19/2008 9:00:00 PM, Ended: 6/23/2008 9:00:00 PM
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| | Squirrels (Latin. Sciurus) are a sort of rodents of genus Sciurus of family Sqiuridae . Except actually genus Sciurus, variety of representatives of family Sqiuridae (i. e. chickaree (Tamiasciurus), palm squirrel (Funambulus)) has the same name - "Squirrel". As to actually sort Sciurus it includes about 30 kinds of rodents, extended in Europe, Northern and the South America and in temperate zone of Asia.
It has the lenght body with a fluffy long tail, ears are long. The color of the body is dark-brown with a white paunch, sometimes gray (especially in winter). Squirrels are found everywhere, except Australia. The squirrel has valuable fur.
Mode of life
One of widely known distinctive features of many squirrels is their ability to reserve nuts for the winter nuts. Some kinds of squirrels dig nuts into the ground; others hide them in hollows of trees. As scientists suppose, bad memory of some kinds of squirrels, especially of gray, helps to keep woods as they dig nuts into the ground and forget about them, and from the germinating seeds new trees appear. [1] In case of supposed danger some kinds of squirrels rise on their hind legs, bend forward legs and then inspect surrounding territory. At detection of the enemy the squirrel often produces a shrill sound, warning other squirrels.
Unlike hares or deer, squirrels are not capable to digest cellulose and consequently eat the vegetation rich with proteins, carbohydrates and fats. The heaviest time for squirrels is the early spring when the buried seeds start to sprout and cannot serve as a food, and new seeds don't mellow. During this period the squirrels eat buds of trees, particularly of Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum). Despite widespread opinion, squirrels are omnivorous: besides nuts, seeds, fruits, mushrooms and green vegetation they also eat insects, eggs and even small birds, mammals and frogs. Very often this food replaces to squirrels nuts in the tropical countries.
Squirrels and humans
Squirrels are considered as clever animals, in settlements they are capable to be fed from the birdfeeder, to dig out the landed plants in search of seeds and to settle in housings, such as garrets. Though many companies sell feeding bird-feeders with protection against squirrels, not many of them are actually protected.
Sometimes squirrels are considered as vermins as they can gnaw all that is possible and impossible to eat; their teeth are always sharp and gradually grinds off (rodents' teeth grow constantly). House owners on territories with the big population of squirrels should carefully close the cellars and attics as squirrels can suit there the nests or can spoil something. Some tenants use humane methods for scaring away of squirrels - scatter on attics and in cellars a wool of pets (dogs or cats), that allows to squirrels to feel presence of a predator in these places. Stuffed animals, as a rule, are ignored by squirrels, and the best way to protect any thing from damage is to grease it with something like black pepper. Sometimes they arrange traps for squirrels and then they transfer them far away from dwelling.
Squirrel can be tamed for feeding from hands. As they are adapted to hide surpluses of food, they will take from you so much feed, how many you will offer. If the human starts to lure the squirrel, it will return to it in a day after new portion. The squirrels living in parks and gardens within the city have acquired for a long time, that the human is the foodstuffs source. But it is not recommended to feed squirrel from hands as they can be infected by plague or other animal diseases. Even if they are not sick, they can wound a hand or bite painfully.
Squirrels often become the reason of electric short circuit. They get into transformer vaults and capacitors looking for food. Later they can be electrocuted and cause a breakdown of the equipment. In USA, squirrels twice in history, became reason of fall of an NASDAQ share index and have caused cascade switching-off of electricity at Alabama University. They often sharpen the teeth using tree branches, but they cannot understand the difference between branches and electric wires. Special rubber guards are used now for protection of wires.
One of the most frequent products for the squirrel is peanut. However recent researches of scientists have shown, that enzyme trypsin, which is present in peanut interferes with protein assimilation in bowel. Dr. James K. Kieswetter from Eastern Washington University advises to feed the squirrels with fried nuts. However, other scientists say, that a peanut in any kind, and also sunflower seeds are insalubrious for squirrels as this food is poor with nutrients and it could be reason for metabolic diseases of bones. |
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