Talk:Thirteen-lined ground squirrel

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 23 August 2021 and 4 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Abihoover. Peer reviewers: Mpolit4, Tracha3.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 11:18, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled
I don't know the proper Wiki etiquette on the subject, but the base text for this stub reads almost word for word with the entry at eNature.com (http://www.enature.com/flashcard/show_flash_card.asp?recordNumber=MA0196, I just happened to read them back to back and was struck by the similarity). It seems to me that there should at least be a citation to eNature at the end of the Wiki article (I'd fix it myself but I gave up long ago trying to figure out the complexities of what is and isn't allowed in the world of Wiki, don't get me started down that particular rathole). M Murphy --75.21.81.87 15:03, 24 February 2007 (UTC) I think the image of a spermophile is sacreligious —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.99.109.170 (talk) 19:38, 21 January 2008 (UTC)


 * The text states "(c) eNature.com" so it was a copyright violation. I removed it. Awyong J. M. Salleh 15:18, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: move on hold until until a wider decision is made. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 16:47, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

Thirteen-lined ground squirrel → Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel — Requested move to usual capitalisation of mammal names (used for all other ground squirrels), see guidelines and discussions at WP:MAMMAL. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 17:21, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Consistency among articles is a good thing, but there is a significant minority of mammal articles that also use the singular, and there has never been any clear consensus either way. If anything, recent developments seem in favor of not capitalizing. An important consideration for me is that the relevant literature almost exclusively uses lowercase.
 * Oppose until there is consensus for using either sentence or title case in relevant WikiProjects. Ucucha 12:30, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I agree this should be put on hold until a wider decision is made. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 00:56, 16 January 2010 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Ictidomys vs. Spermophilus
All databases and references I consulted, including the database referenced on the page, which is considered normative, the NCBI taxonomy databas (not considered normative), and others, agree that the genus of this species is still "Spermophilus", although some sources will allow "Ictidomys" as a subgenus. I realize that an argument has been made that Spermophilus is paraphyletic, but the proposal to break Spermophilus down does not seem to have been officially accepted. Is it the proper place of Wikipedia to try to supersede the generally recognized references in a field?

Therefore, since Wikipedia is not a normative resource for scientific reference, and ITIS is, I am editing the article to suit the normative reference. Dogface (talk) 01:06, 6 November 2010 (UTC)


 * First, ITIS should not be considered a normative reference. Its taxonomy is well out of date and (I think) still follows the 2nd edition (1993) of Mammal Species of the World.
 * The split of the genus Spermophilus into several smaller genera is recent, but I think it has been well received and it appears to be founded on solid evidence. The split was endorsed by Guy Musser in a comprehensive review of squirrel relationships (http://hdl.handle.net/2246/6067) and has been used in recent papers in Mammalian Species (indicating the American Society of Mammalogists's acceptance of the split) and even in recent papers on this species.
 * Wikipedia has the opportunity to react fast when new research provides support for a change in taxonomy; we should take that opportunity. Ucucha 14:30, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Cicadas
Obviously I am not a published source and this is only anecdotal evidence, but the comment about viciously attacking/eating cicadas is true in my experience. I have a pet 13-lined ground squirrel and whenever I put a cicada in her tank, she goes after it and eats it headfirst, everything except the wings. Like a kid with a chocolate bunny. Cantras (talk) 15:32, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Environmental physiology
— Assignment last updated by Jessicaphillips10 (talk) 01:16, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Life span in captivity (anecdata)
I tried to google this once and all sources said 8 years. Not 7-9, not "usually 7 but up to 10", just "8." When I finally found some citations instead of them all presumably copying each other, the citations all pointed to one old book and that book cited one case. My pet ground squirrel has just passed away, age 6 and a half. I would say she was visibly older by 4 or so. I suppose I'm sharing this for anyone else trying to find the information, even if it's hardly wiki-able. Cantras (talk) 17:23, 2 December 2022 (UTC)