Mother Richardson's Ground Squirrel - Urocitellus richardsonii - Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada
Anthropomorphizing (ascribing human form or attributes to an animal) is a tricky thing. For one, it suggests that an animal may not on its own account feel any of the same traits as human, or at least not in a meaningful way. This denies these two Richardson's Ground Squirrels a whole range of things, including real care, connection, fear and concern.
On the other hand, when an animal's face by chance mimics a human expression, it's pretty funny.
With this image, as in the next, the parent is clearly alarmed and is sending out a warning. The baby, on the other hand, appears to wear a beatific smile - perhaps arising from simple ignorance of potential danger, or maybe from wilful refusal to take its parent seriously. Of course the musculature and expression on the young one's face has no connection to a human smile, it just happens by coincidence to resemble one. That's what makes anthropomorphizing fun - although one of my friends and her daughter didn't think it was so amusing when I said the picture reminded me of them (well, the daughter thought it was a bit funny).
At the other end of the spectrum from anthropomorphizing is comparing a living thing to an inanimate object. In this case, these ground squirrels are sometimes called Picket Pins, a reference to their standing posture's resemblance to the stakes that would hold a tethered horse to a certain location. Finally, on the comparison front, I thought these two might be called Saskatchewan Meerkats, on account of their resemblance to that charismatic African plains dweller.
Mother Richardson's Ground Squirrel - Urocitellus richardsonii - Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada
Anthropomorphizing (ascribing human form or attributes to an animal) is a tricky thing. For one, it suggests that an animal may not on its own account feel any of the same traits as human, or at least not in a meaningful way. This denies these two Richardson's Ground Squirrels a whole range of things, including real care, connection, fear and concern.
On the other hand, when an animal's face by chance mimics a human expression, it's pretty funny.
With this image, as in the next, the parent is clearly alarmed and is sending out a warning. The baby, on the other hand, appears to wear a beatific smile - perhaps arising from simple ignorance of potential danger, or maybe from wilful refusal to take its parent seriously. Of course the musculature and expression on the young one's face has no connection to a human smile, it just happens by coincidence to resemble one. That's what makes anthropomorphizing fun - although one of my friends and her daughter didn't think it was so amusing when I said the picture reminded me of them (well, the daughter thought it was a bit funny).
At the other end of the spectrum from anthropomorphizing is comparing a living thing to an inanimate object. In this case, these ground squirrels are sometimes called Picket Pins, a reference to their standing posture's resemblance to the stakes that would hold a tethered horse to a certain location. Finally, on the comparison front, I thought these two might be called Saskatchewan Meerkats, on account of their resemblance to that charismatic African plains dweller.