Talk:California ground squirrel/Archive 1

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Archive 1

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This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Imannilforushan.

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Untitled

The naming convention in Wikipedia is small letters. I propose moving it back to California ground squirrel Andries 21:07, 10 Dec 2004 (UTC)

huh?

How do these squirrels "heat" rattlesnakes' tails? Do they have laser vision or something? (Sarcasm) But you might want to clarify.

I thought it meant that they were heating their own tails. But then, how does this confound the snakes? Wouldn't it make them easier to find? Definitely clarification is in order. --Hermitage 22:38, 10 September 2005 (UTC)
I believe it references this recent news article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070814/ap_on_sc/hot_tail Ozymandias42 18:44, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

The squirrel was named after Frederick William Beechey

I thought it was interesting that the the squirrel was named after Frederick William Beechey who seems to have had quite a distinguished career as an early 19th century British explorer. He participated in or led polar expeditions, expeditions to study North Africa, South America and Northern California. Beechey Island, a large island in Northern Canada was named after him.

Source: Squirrel was named for him and he explored Northern California http://www.etc-etc.com/sqrlinfo.htm

Source: Beechey Island was named for him http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechey_Island

Source: A few details about his life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William_Beechey

Some of the sources aren't great. Probably the original species description should be referenced for the source of the name, assuming it confirms this. But I'm not sure that any of this is significant or interesting enough to be included in the article. But it interested me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Davefoc (talk • contribs) 07:17, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Link to the original description of the species by Richardson Fauna boreali-americana; or the zoology of the northern parts of British America Part First containing the Quadrupeds, Page 170 http://books.google.com/books?id=NzxkAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Fauna+boreali-americana%3B+or+the+zoology+of+the+northern+parts+of+British+America&ei=d9VkSdyEKJeOMqSJneMI&client=firefox-a#PPA170,M1 Davefoc (talk) 16:45, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Scientific name change

Innotata changed the scientific name in the first sentence to Otospermophilus beecheyi from Spermophilus beecheyi.

What is the basis for this change?

Mammal Species of the World lists Otospermophilus as a subgenus and the name as Spermophilus beecheyi http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/browse.asp?id=12400994

The on-line Smithsonian article has the name as Spermophilus beecheyi http://www.mnh.si.edu/mna/image_info.cfm?species_id=355

Wikispecies has the name as Spermophilus beecheyi http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Spermophilus_beecheyi

There were several articles on the web including the earlier version of the Wikipedia article that referred to Otospermophilus beecheyi as the former name.

However it appears that these sources may be out of date. This article seems to be the basis of the Innotata change:

http://si-pddr.si.edu/dspace/bitstream/10088/7871/1/vz_helgen_2009_J_Mammalogy_270-305.pdf

What gives this article standing as the basis for the change? Assuming that the article has sufficient standing it probably should be referenced and the current article should be expanded to include a brief discussion of the revised taxonomy of the California ground squirrel.--Davefoc (talk) 19:09, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Wikispecies is not a reliable source for taxonomy; MSW is not updated regularly; the on-line Smithsonian is based on books that are nearly a decade old.
Taxonomy changes regularly as our insights into the relationships of organisms change. Wikipedia shouldn't be following every moment's whiff in classification, but in this case, the reclassification is supported by solid data—with this species and the many others that have been reclassified included, Spermophilus would be a paraphyletic genus, and there's a broad consensus among zoologists that paraphyletic genera should be avoided, at least in the living fauna—and has been proposed by some of the world's foremost systematic mammalogists (Kris Helgen and Don Wilson) and recently endorsed by another (Guy Musser).
Your point that the article should explain the name change is fair, and I have added a sentence in the lead. Ucucha 19:22, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Human attempts to exterminate

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/in-1918-california-drafted-children-into-a-war-on-squirrels has some information that should be added, and more along the line of human v. squirrel should be added. (Alas, I leave this note, knowing it's a poor substitute for actually doing the work myself. Sorry.)--Prosfilaes (talk) 21:03, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

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Each squirrel having its own entrance

I added {{dubious}} to the claim that each squirrel has its own entrance. Obviously it's original research, but based on personal observation of the squirrels living in my yard, each entrance appears to be used by all the squirrels in this family (two parents, five children). —howcheng {chat} 04:15, 24 May 2020 (UTC)

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