Extremely Grateful for he XERUS RUTILUS!

 

Whew! I knew “X” was going to be a tough one, so I was eXceedingly happy to discover the Xerus Rutilus, otherwise known as the unstriped ground squirrel, and to find that its range includes Tanzania! I wish I could say that I was specifically looking for this particular rodent while we were there, because had I spotted one, I would surely have jabbed my traveling companions in the ribs and said, “Hey! Get your gaze off that common cheetah over there, and take a gander at this unstriped ground squirrel! It’s going to be very important to me, a few months from now!”

But, no. There were probably lots of these creatures running about the savanna we were traveling though constantly; my eyes were just tuned in to bigger game. Still, this squirrel is significant to the ecosystem in which it lives, even given its diminutive size. It differs from the other squirrels in the area in that it doesn’t have the distinctive white stripes down its brown back, instead sporting white rings around its eyes. It eats both plant material and insects, and has excellent foraging skills which help it to survive in times of poor food supply. A mostly solitary animal, it lives with another adult or two in overlapping burrow systems in the ground, used for shelter or sleeping, but is active during the day.

“Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each one according to its kind’, and it was so.”

(Genesis 1:24 NKJV)