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Name : Tufted ground squirrel ( Rheithrosciurus genus Macrotis )
Where it lives : On the ground and low arm of hilly forests in Borneo
Tufted ground squirrels (Rheithrosciurus macrotis) have one of the most voluminous tails relative to body size among all mammals.
What it eats : Extremely hard seeds from a handful of tree species
Why it ’s awesome : Rumor has it that tufted priming squirrel , nicknamed " vampire " squirrels in a 2014 Sciencearticle , skip over down from gloomy offshoot onto the backs of deer and kill them by slash the jugular nervure with their razor - piercing teeth .
Local Dayak huntersreport findingdisemboweled cervid carcase and suspect the squirrels feast on their fair game ’s stomach content , heart and liver . In villages close to the timberland edge , tufted soil squirrels are also said to kill domestic chickens to eat their nerve and liver .
But in 2020 , researchers discovered these squirrel are not bloodthirsty meat - eaters . alternatively , their unearthly dentition — which admit large incisors on both the upper and depleted jaw that have cryptical carve ridges like a saw — are used to eatextremely hard seeded player . " We ’re speak source so intemperately that a strong human with a mallet would have to process pretty heavily to get into one , " lead writer Andrew Marshall , a biological anthropologist at the University of Michigan , tell IFLscience at the time .
Related:30,000 - yr - previous pelt ball hidden in Canadian permafrost is actually a mummified squirrel
Tufted land squirrel also have spectacular , club - regulate seat that are 30 % big than their bodies — one of the most voluminous tails among all mammals , relative to body size of it . Scientists are unsure why the squirrels play such an exuberant appendage , but it ’s potential their tails protect them against predators , such as Sundaclouded leopards(Neofelis diardi ) , by confuse their small soundbox and puzzling potential killers .
— flight squirrels in China have discovered a canny new thaumaturgy to store Nut for longsighted
— Viral video of deer eat on a snake in the grass is n’t as uncanny as you might think
— Borneo has a intercrossed ' mystery monkey , ' and research worker are concerned
How these squirrels ended up in Borneo is a whodunit . Researchshows their closest living congener are a grouping of South American squirrel — but there is no sign of the zodiac of any other congener in either Asia or North America that could serve scientist delineate their journey to Southeast Asia .
A 2012studysuggests theRheithrosciuruslineage diverged from a group of Palearctic species some 36 million long time ago and colonized Borneo overland from Southeast Asia — but the tufted background squirrel ’s evolutionary history rest nebulous . ( Palearctic mention to a realm comprising Eurasia northwards of the Himalayas , northerly Africa and the temperate parts of the Arabian peninsula . )
