01 October 2011

Squirrel Time

Tree Squirrel (Boomeekhoring - Paraxerus cepapi) in the Magaliesberg

The other mammal I photographed in the Magaliesberg is the Tree Squirrel. The above picture was taken with my handheld camera, but the camera traps saw plenty of action as well.

Planning on making a sandwich?

As mentioned in the previous post the bread seemed to be the most popular item on the menu but the squirrels also enjoyed the sunflower seeds and fruit. On a normal day these guys eat a wide variety of plant material and insects.

Enjoying some ever popular Sunflower seeds

They didn't seem to mind the cameras much. They are also quite tame around the house and I managed to get some good photographs by just sitting about 4 steps away from them.

Some Bananas were much appreciated as well

Although these are Tree Squirrels, they still spend a lot of time on the ground looking for food and moving between trees. They prefer woodlands but are absent from true forests.

There must be some more seed around here somewhere...

These little squirrels are much smaller than the alien Eastern Gray Squirrel found in the south around Cape Town. You can see some previous posts about them over here.

The classic squirrel pose

Next time I'll wrap things up at the Magaliesberg with a couple of images showing the birds that payed the cameras a visit.

Late afternoon at the Magaliesberg mountains