Cute Animals
The cutest lawnmower: 31 May 2014
Destroyer of gardens! But, as a baby, a groundhog is very cute. This little fellow trundled into view.
He's actually a marmot (Marmota monax) in the genus marmota, family sciuridae (squirrel family), genus rodentia (rodents).
Here, we get to see the little fellow devour the leaves of a weed in our backyard.
Note the leaves he's looking at, and the bunch of leaves in the foreground.
Munch, munch: the leaves in the foreground are still there, but the leaves in front of him - devoured.
In this next series, he proceeds to make the leaves in front of him vanish, mouthful by mouthful.
All very cute, except when he's chowing down on our vegetable garden.
Below, the two distant relatives appear together: Marmota monax, family: sciruidae (ground squirrels), order: rodentia; and, on the right,
Sciurus carolinensis, subfamily: sciurinae (tree squirrels), order: rodentia.
