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'Vampire' Squirrel Has World's Fluffiest Tail

sciencehabit (1205606) writes Few scientists have ever seen the rare tufted ground squirrel (Rheithrosciurus macrotis), which hides in the hilly forests of Borneo, but it is an odd beast. It's twice the size of most tree squirrels, and it reputedly has a taste for blood. Now, motion-controlled cameras have revealed another curious fact. The 35-centimeter-long rodent has the bushiest tail of any mammal compared with its body size.

34 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Vampire Squirrel Overlords by Hallucienda · · Score: 5, Funny

    I for one welcome our new Vampire Squirrel overlords.

    1. Re:Vampire Squirrel Overlords by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      they're so FLUFFY!

    2. Re:Vampire Squirrel Overlords by Rei · · Score: 2

      Given that their automated camera happened to snap pictures of an adorable-looking but viscious killer squirrel, did it also happen to also snap a picture an evil jester, a whiny prince, or at least someone eating a fish cream sandwich?

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      I was watching this thing on TV about some guy named Hitler. Someone should stop him!
    3. Re:Vampire Squirrel Overlords by azav · · Score: 1

      I, for one, welcome our new vampire squirrel overlords.

      FTFY

      --
      - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
    4. Re:Vampire Squirrel Overlords by azav · · Score: 2

      Everyone knows that the jungle is not natural habitat of evil jesters.

      Duh.

      --
      - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
    5. Re: Vampire Squirrel Overlords by jd2112 · · Score: 2

      Or a woolly mammoth, a sloth, and a saber toothed tiger.

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    6. Re:Vampire Squirrel Overlords by Alorelith · · Score: 2

      Aha...Joss Whedon is not a genius. It turns out he just plagiarized his ideas from Fluffy the Vampire Slayer :(

    7. Re:Vampire Squirrel Overlords by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      I think we have a new candidate for an IgNobel?

  2. Time to remake and update by future+assassin · · Score: 1

    Gonads and Strife https://www.youtube.com/watch?... with this new Squampire

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    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
  3. News for Nerds... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I guess we have to discuss any way we can of getting a little tail.

    Its not like it comes easy for us.

  4. Hmm, let me guess... by alexhs · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hmm, let me guess...

    News for nutters, stuff that squeaks?

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    I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
    1. Re:Hmm, let me guess... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Hmm, let me guess...

      News for nutters, stuff that squeaks?

      There are options for you. You can block what you don't want.

      It's News for Nerds, not News for computer programmers only.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  5. Re:Waste of taxpayer money by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

    https://www.linkedin.com/pub/m...

    She provides plenty of reasons for the research there. Moreover, the article says nothing about the Smithsonian paying for this research. She just happens to be a world expert on these squirrels and is working there, likely because they have a collection of preserved specimens that she is using in her studies. Given that the Smithsonian is providing their collection of preserved specimens from this species for her research, I wouldn't be surprised if what the universities and research institutions tied to this effort have to offer are the funds to engage in the expeditions. You'll be pleased to know that neither George Mason University nor the research station based in Spain are US federal government institutions.

    Mind you, I'm not attempting to make any sort of political statement with this post, I'm merely seeking to point out the lack of a factual basis for most of your assertions.

  6. I shall hold off on my usual rational comments. by queazocotal · · Score: 4, Funny

    Fulffffffffffffffffffffffffffeh!

  7. Holy Crap!!! by quantaman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Local legends suggest that Rheithrosciurus, which is thought to mostly eat giant acorns, can be savage. Hunters say that the squirrels will perch on low branches, jump onto a deer, gash its jugular vein, and disembowel the carcass. "It sounds pretty fantastical," says a skeptical Roland Kays, a zoologist at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. "Even more than its fluffy tail."

    This sounds far too awesome to be fact checked.

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    I stole this Sig
    1. Re:Holy Crap!!! by Thanshin · · Score: 1

      Clearly none of the deer lived to tell the tale.

  8. So fluffy by Shadyman · · Score: 4, Funny

    Squirrel with huge, fluffy tail and a taste for blood?

    "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!"

    1. Re: So fluffy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      He vants to suck your nuts!

  9. Hey look, a squirrel by JonathanHart · · Score: 3, Funny

    In a forest in Borneo, a small group encounters a surprisingly large squirrel with an exceedingly bushy tail. It is grooming itself. 1: "Its soooo cute." 2: "Hey look... Another one." 3: Looking tense, he firmly grasps 2's shoulder, and in a muted growl, "Look in the trees." The camera pans up and around showing what could be thousands of squirrels perched on branches in and around the small group. The squirrels stare at the group motionlessly. The camera starts to slowly back up and away from the scene, and just as the squirrels become difficult to individually distinguish, they descend in brown furry waves upon the hapless group, whose screams scare up a number of birds from a distance tree.

    1. Re:Hey look, a squirrel by Megane · · Score: 2

      I *warned* you, but did you listen to me? Oh, no, you *knew*, didn't you? Oh, it's just a harmless little *squirrel*, isn't it?

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  10. Re:Why is this on Slashdot? by Rei · · Score: 5, Funny

    Quit your yappin. When I was your age, we used a wood-burning Slashdot. Old Tindery, we called it. Of course, back in those days, we didn't have the internet, we had to connect to it with a couple pieces of copper wire and some old fishing line, which back in those days was known as "trout twine". You could pick up a coil of trout twine and a shiny red apple for a nickel down at Bailey's Drug, but there was a nickel shortage due to the war, so I had to use five red cents which I got from picking a barrel full of cucumbers down in Birchton. "Greeny Sausages", we called them. I could eat a greeny sausage all day. Maybe two, but never three, because then my aunt would give me a whooping with her hickory switch for being greedy. And oh, you don't want to see Aunt Margie's hickory switch. It was a mule's leg in length and made of the most knotty hickory a lad ever did see...

    --
    I was watching this thing on TV about some guy named Hitler. Someone should stop him!
  11. Re:Why is this on Slashdot? by agentgonzo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's in the science section. It's news about science. Slashdot is more than just maths and computers. Science is more than just Physics.

  12. World's fluffiest tail by azav · · Score: 1

    Oh yeah, finally some real science.

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    - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
  13. Re:Why is this on Slashdot? by Muad'Dave · · Score: 1

    You sound like the "Grumpy Old Man" character on "The John Boy and Billy Big Show".

    --
    Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
  14. R.O.U.S.'s by PrescriptionWarning · · Score: 4, Funny

    Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist...

  15. I'm warning you! by nitehawk214 · · Score: 1

    He's got huge, sharp... er... He can leap about. Look at the bones!

    --
    I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  16. When you go to Borneo... by tomhath · · Score: 1

    ...be sure to bring the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch

  17. It's the Cuteacabra. by ScentCone · · Score: 3, Funny

    'nuff said.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  18. Re:Nobody on here knows about biology by azav · · Score: 1

    My 100% heterosexual and male marine biology degree wishes to contest your postulation.

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    - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
  19. Fluffy the Vampire Squirrel Hunter by Nyder · · Score: 1

    New series on the WB coming to you this fall:

    Fluffy the Vampire Squirrel Hunter.

    Join Fluffy and her team of misfits battle the increasing population of Vampire Squirrels.

    Ya, sorry, I know it's stupid, I'm out of weed currently.

    --
    Be seeing you...
  20. It's no match by jpellino · · Score: 1

    for the San Acitos Dirt Shrew.

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
    1. Re:It's no match by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      they're extinct, the hoop snakes would run them over, then eat them

  21. Re:Why is this on Slashdot? by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 1

    Did you wear an onion on your belt, too? Or was that just the fashion up around Springfield?

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    That is all.
  22. Re:Waste of taxpayer money by thunderbird32 · · Score: 1

    Fair enough, but if you get to pull out of funding the Smithsonian, I get to withhold my tax dollars from military spending.