All the prettiest girls go dancing by

[austin_dern]

I should close off Squirrel Awareness Month with a couple last pictures from the Popcorn Park Zoo which somehow went unused otherwise.

	``I'll eat it, but that doesn't mean I'll like it. Well, I'll like it, but that's coincidental to my eating it. ''
	Cocoa settles down after eating and gets ready for his nap.
	Are you aware of squirrels? This one seems very aware of some certain things.
	Some people passing the squirrel thought that the freelance squirrels hanging around the zoo was maybe the funniest thing ever. I admit I did laugh when I first saw the squirrels on exhibit at the Singapore Zoo, but these aren't on exhibit; they just know a good place when they find it.
	And this is a frame from Harvey Comics's Little Audrey Number 28, ``Aw Nuts''. Out of context this would make one think that Little Audrey, who is a completely and radically different character to Little Lulu, is about to be devoured by a pack of enraged, flesh-eating squirrels. In context, however, this is the correct interpretation. Her successful escape involves a refrigerator and roller skates. This comes from Dark Horse Comics's Harvey Comics Classics Volume 5, and the whole book is wonderful like this. I really got into the Harvey Comics when a kid, and as a grownup, I appreciate they're much weirder than I thought back then.

Trivia: Amylose, which makes up about 20 percent of starches, is the only starch that turns blue when iodine is applied. Source: Radar, Hula Hoops, and Playful Pigs, Joe Schwarcz.

Currently Reading: The Making Of The Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes.

Comments

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Diggin' on them pix... ^v^ *puts food coloring in your starch..*

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Glad you like them. I am exhausted of all the good zoo pictures I had prepared and must visit again; i may also have a selection from the Rally to Restore Sanity and surrounding trip to show off.

[xiaobaitu.livejournal.com]

The squirrels in the Bronx zoo are numerous and largely melanistic. That was surprising to me; we have only traditional grey here.

But there was one rather bodacious individual stealing food from out of the bald eagle enclosure at the aviary.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I've seen some of the black squirrels at the Bronx Zoo! In fact, I got a picture of one who looked familiar for BunnyHugger. We had some fine squirrel-spotting moments this weekend, happy to report.

I admire the courage if not the risk-awareness of the one in the bald eagle enclosure, though.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Melanistic squirrels are very nearly the only kind of Eastern gray one sees in my city. (We also have non-melanistic fox squirrels.) About a decade back there was a gray Eastern gray that used to visit my squirrel feeder, but I haven't seen one since he disappeared.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile in my parts of the suburbs, and in the urb where I work, the squirrels are really gray and prone to taunting the cats. I don't think I've seen any melanistic ones around.