Red River Zoo: Pallas' Cat, Russian Red Tree Squirrel

[guppiecat]

Continuing my Red River Zoo in Fargo set. Today is all about the Pallas' Cat and the Russian Red Tree Squirrel. These two animals are pretty rare in zoos, and I'm happy that I was able to see them here. (Yes, I know that it should really be "Pallas's Cat", but the grammatical error seems to the "right" nomenclature in the naturalist community, so that's what I'm using.)




No wonder Marco Polo was so cranky


Pallas' Cat (Otocolobus manul) - This was my first glimpse, ever, of a Pallas' Cat.


Pallas' Cat (Otocolobus manul) - This was the first glimpse, ever, of me by a Pallas' Cat.


Pallas' Cat (Otocolobus manul) - There's a cat behind the plant, in case you couldn't tell.


Russian Red Tree Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris exalbidus) - "Nope, no acorns here"


Russian Red Tree Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris exalbidus) - "Hey! This isn't an acorn!"


Russian Red Tree Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris exalbidus) - "Now where did I leave all my acorns?"


Russian Red Tree Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris exalbidus) - "Do you have my acorns?"


Russian Red Tree Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris exalbidus) - "I miss my acorns"


Careful, Rocs slippery when wet

Comments

[lydy.livejournal.com]

How big is the Pallas' cat? She's beautiful.

[guppiecat]

They're a bit bigger than a large house cat. It's hard to tell, because of all their fur, but I'd say that they're about half again as large as my orange cat.

Not that this helps you at all, since you've never seen my orange cat, but I don't know of any cats that we may have in common for sizings.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I know Tesla's cats.

[guppiecat]

OK, they'd be about 3x Dylan, but covered with Shadow's fur.

(This measurement may change as Dylan continues to grow :)

[mplsfish.livejournal.com]

"This was the first glimpse, ever, of me by a Pallas' Cat."

That you know of. They may have been watching you for years.

[guppiecat]

Well, yes, that's technically true.

However, I suspect that had I been under observation, they would also have observed the little fuzzy sparkly balls that surround me. Had that occurred, I find it unlikely that they would have been able to resist the overwhelming urge to leap from cover and play like the little fuzzy kittens they are.

Thus do I refute paranoia.

[mplsfish.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Paranoids live to be refuted. :)

[ororo.livejournal.com]

Great shots, all.

I was taught to punctuate "the cat of Pallas" and such words ending with s as s'. As such, I think Pallas' looks a lot cleaner.

But of course the people who write the grammar books never talk to me about such things.

[guppiecat]

I was taught (what I believe is currently accepted as "right") that one should use a singular possessive apostrophe after an "s" only when that "s" indicates plurality. In all other cases, you use the possessive apostrophe with a following "s".

Thus, you get oddities like:

Tess's tresses' excesses caresses Tess's dress's recesses which enhances the divineress's goddessness.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I don't know about the Russian Red Tree Squirrel, but the common American Gray Squirrel happily eats sunflower seeds from my feeder. (On purpose: I feed squirrels as well as birds because the cats and I like watching both.)