Spermophilus citellus - European souslik

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The European ground squirrel is endemic to central and southeastern Europe.

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^{European souslik, is a species from the squirrel family. It is a animal, living in colonies of individual burrows in pastures or grassy embankments. The squirrels emerge during the day to feed upon seeds, plant shoots and roots or flightless invertebrates. The colonies maintain sentinels who whistle at the sight of a predator, bringing the pack scurrying back to safety.}

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^{The European ground squirrel has a shrill alarm call that will cause all other individuals in the vicinity to dive for cover.
The European ground squirrel is endemic to central and southeastern Europe.
It has become locally extinct in Germany and Poland but was reintroduced successfully into the wild in Poland in 2005.}

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^{The European ground squirrel has very specific habitat requirements. It needs short turf in order to dig its tunnel system. It finds this on the steppes and in pasture, in dry banks, on sports fields, parks and lawns.}

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^{During the winter it stops up the entrances to its burrow and hibernates in a nest of dry vegetation. Each individual occupies a separate chamber and during this period, the body temperature drops to 2.0 °C, and the heart rate slows to a few beats per minute. During hibernation, the squirrel may wake up briefly for a few days and uses up the fat reserves accumulated during the summer, consuming about 90% of the fat stored in the body.}

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Banat, 2016

Canon 600D, 24-105mm f/4L

You may see my other photos...

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Speaking of the philosophy involved in moving humanity into space:
Furniture will be a largely obsolete concept. Take for example the dresser my
mom bought for me when I was a kid. I still have it, and by the standards of
its era, it's an admirable household fixture. It is a massive construction of
maple wood, expertly joined with cunningly fit pieces, fitted and glued with
the strength of iron. It is set with massive brass fixtures, and looks today
-- discounting the dust -- as new as the day it was purchased, a quarter
century ago. So far, so good; a fine piece of furniture, you might say. But
let's look at it objectively, as a machine, as an object with a purpose. Here
sit a hundred pounds of hardwood with a compressive strength of 1500 psi,
jointed by an expert craftsman into a rigid box that would easily support a
bull elephant. And what is the sole purpose of this massive crate, this
monument to a dead tree? -- it holds my socks.

Not only is it blind engineering overkill of epic proportions, it is also an
environmental disaster. The home to generations of squirrels, a sentinel post
for falcons, an autumnal banner of golden glory, a living creature, was chopped
down to enshrine some underwear. This, my friends, is no way to run a planet.
-- Marshall T. Savage, from The Millennial Project:
Colonizing the Galaxy -- In Eight Easy Steps