# ground squirrels



## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

i was wayching the end of this special 
when they were showing brown ground squirrels attacking rattle snakes and getting tagged everyonce and a while,and contiuned to attack the rattler
and further examantion of the squirrels showed they took a full hit from the rattlers with no side effects

does anyone now any further info on why there venom does not effect these squirrels


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

were the squirrels trying to kill the rattlers?


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## illnino (Mar 6, 2004)

chipmunks kick ass, i wish i had one....


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

peacock has pictures of his pet squirrel in the videos/pictures forum. Do a search for squirrel and youll find it, its quite intriguing


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## CrocKeeper (Dec 26, 2003)

First understand that not all bites are hot bites...many are "dry", and no venom is delivered, especially in a defensive non food obtaining strike...

ground squirrels regularly succomb to rattlesnake venom and are a regular part of many rattlesnakes diets....


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

CrocKeeper said:


> First understand that not all bites are hot bites...many are "dry", and no venom is delivered, especially in a defensive non food obtaining strike...
> 
> ground squirrels regularly succomb to rattlesnake venom and are a regular part of many rattlesnakes diets....


 they were taking full hits of venom 
they captured them and brought them to the vet and checked them out
they had enough to seriously injure a human


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

piranha45 said:


> were the squirrels trying to kill the rattlers?


 they were actually waving there tails like crazy and attacking the rattle to drive it away
they would attack the rattler 7 at a time and a few would take hits


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## CrocKeeper (Dec 26, 2003)

> they were taking full hits of venom
> they captured them and brought them to the vet and checked them out
> they had enough to seriously injure a human


I would be interested in knowing how they determined how much venom had been deposited in the squirrel, without killing the squirrel?


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

CrocKeeper said:


> > they were taking full hits of venom
> > they captured them and brought them to the vet and checked them out
> > they had enough to seriously injure a human
> 
> ...


 it was on the show venom er on animal planet
ill try and find a link for that episode


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## fos (May 16, 2004)

Long time reader, first time poster







. Anyways heres an interesting link to read about the topic http://www.nature.com/nsu/990701/990701-9.html.


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## Polypterus (May 4, 2003)

Very interesting, was not aware of this in Spermophilus beecheyi,
Becoming too eastern oriented in my Squirrel work.


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

fos said:


> Long time reader, first time poster
> 
> 
> 
> ...










thanks for the link


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## CrocKeeper (Dec 26, 2003)

> The adult squirrels have some resistance to rattlesnake venom


above from the link....(thank you for the Link by the way and welcome)

that statement is based on more hypothetical, than work to prove it. Dipodimys also exhibit this behaviour toward both Crotalus cerastes, and C. mitchelli.


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