People who have answered many questions in their lives will never bother to explain why a red, ashen or black animal has long been called a squirrel. Is that the reason white stripe on your stomach? Rather, a hare should be called a squirrel, its entire skin is white. In Russia, there used to be a different name for her, Veveritsa or Veksha.
However, what is there in the world, there are real white squirrels, they live in Indonesia. There are crumb squirrels, otherwise mouse squirrels. Their tails do not exceed five centimeters in length. Large teleutks (subspecies of the common squirrel) are found in the vicinity of the Ob and Irtysh. The average squirrel is small, weighing approximately 250 grams.
Acquaintance of a person with this animal is a long time. It is not by chance that squirrel fur is among the most valuable. In winter, on a square centimeter of her fur coat, the researchers counted no less than ten thousand hairs. On the abdomen, their size is three times smaller. But the squirrel of our ancestors was not only interested in fur. In the Middle Ages, there was a belief that poison was obtained from exhausted squirrels. And in Western Europe sick cattle were treated with squirrel meat.
The agility of the squirrel is proverbial. Why is the squirrel so agile? Is it because the sensitive hairs of the "vibrissa" grow in her not only on the muzzle, like in other animals, but also on the head, belly and even legs. In barely born baby squirrels, eyes, hind legs and tail organs, which they need for independent living, begin to grow rapidly. We can say that they become agile, if not in the womb, then immediately after birth.
Many of us, walking in the forest, are just waiting for the charming animal to stick its nose out of its hollow. But the very nesting of the squirrel, it is called Gaino, few people have seen. In shape, it looks like a ball woven from spruce, pine and birch branches, moreover, it is clogged with moss and grass. In bad weather, squirrels do not leave the house for days. In times of famine, up to six animals are crowded into the Gaino at once, but, as they say, in cramped conditions, but not offended. But even in seventeen-degree frost, the temperature here is maintained at 20 degrees Celsius. And yet, no matter how astute the observer of nature, he will never know where the squirrel lives. After all, she has up to five apartments - go and figure out which of them she is visiting.
Their mating periods are associated with a lot of unrest. Several gentlemen follow one squirrel, from time to time skirmishes occur between them, and the lady also gets it if she does not bother herself with a quick choice. During the rut, the males are very excited by the love game, they scream, they run a lot on the ground. In the Moscow region, the rut period is January, if not very cold, or February-March, and already in early March, squirrels begin to appear in the nests. Married couples in squirrels sometimes last a lifetime. However, due to the high mortality of males, family groups often consist of one male and 4-5 females. They live nearby and maintain friendly relations.
That was a long time ago. Then, when vast forests had not yet been touched by people, and therefore mighty trees grew there, and various animals lived, who did not know either the sound of a shot from a gun or the clicking of traps.
In one of these forests lived small animals - Vekshi. Their black eyes on a pretty muzzle looked at the world without fear, their ears with funny tassels at the ends caught the slightest rustle of foliage or the sonorous chirping of birds. And their red hair shimmered so much in the sun that the rest of the inhabitants of the forest sometimes even envied them.
What beautiful coats you have! the bunnies wondered.
But the Vekshi only proudly clicked their tongues in response and, jumping from branch to branch, continued to frolic and play. They climbed to the very top of the tree and jumped down, spreading their paws to the sides and steering with their tail. And the tails of the vekshas were gorgeous: big and fluffy! The animals in flight were so masterfully controlled by him that even trees as high as a five-story building did not stop them.
Then, having played enough, they set to work - to stock up on provisions for the winter. Vekshi collected mushrooms, strung them on branches, tore cones and nuts, which they hid in hollows of trees or simply buried in the ground.
Why do you have so many stocks? After all, they are enough to feed all the inhabitants of the forest! - asked the bunnies, who really liked these funny animals.
We have a bad memory! Today we remember where our hiding place is, and tomorrow we have already forgotten ... And so, you see, in the winter we will stumble upon someone's pantry! It's just chilly for us in the winter. Our fur coats, although beautiful, are cold in them in severe frost! Whether business - at you! Wow, what fur!
- And you, too, change your coat for the winter, like us. You can't see us in such attire in the snow, no animal is scary!
“But we are not afraid of anyone!” We are nimble!
But, nevertheless, some vekshi thought. They really wanted to show off in a white fur coat! And, as you know, what you really want, someday it will still come true!
... When autumn came, some of the vekshas began to get red fur, and in their place a light, almost white coat appeared.
- That's how beautiful we are! - the "snow whites" boasted to their relatives. - We are warm in such a fur coat. Not what you!
But one day people came to this forest. And their intentions were not at all friendly. After all, they were hunters who were engaged in harvesting skins. They dressed the obtained skins, and then sold them to the owner of the factory, where fur coats for rich people were sewn from fox, bear and even wolf skins.
At first, the inhabitants of the forest looked with surprise at the hitherto unseen creatures, and when the first shots rang out, and the snow turned scarlet with blood, they rushed in all directions. Animals and birds hid. There was silence, broken only by the creaking of the snow under the hunters' feet, and the quiet snatches of their conversations:
“Quiet… let’s go there… I saw what a noble skin the fox has?… We’ll sell it for a high price…”
And suddenly one of the hunters saw a veksha, one of those who had changed her red outfit for a white fur coat.
- O! Look, white veksha! Shoot quickly, otherwise it will slip away! Ah, missed ... She has a noble coat. I have never seen such a thing! Squirrel! Pure squirrel! Oh, and we'll get rich if we manage to get it!
But the animal no longer heard the last words. From branch to branch, from tree to tree, he ran as fast as he could away from the dangerous place!
Dark days have come for the white vekshas. Hunters from morning to evening hunted down poor animals, trying to shoot so as not to spoil the skin. The fur, which until recently was so white, is now all stuck together from dirt, because the animals had no time even to clean it.
Two or three vekshas climbed into one hollow and, closely clinging to each other, listened to every rustle coming from outside. Food stocks became less and less every day, because the animals completely forgot the places where they hid mushrooms and nuts.
And outside, now from one side, now from the other, only the exclamations of the hunters were heard:
- There she is! Oh you squirrel! Shoot! Come on!..
It is not known how this story would end, but, finally, winter began to recede. Only at night she still tried to hold on, freezing the puddles that appeared during the day from the melted snow, because the sun warmed the earth more and more. More and more often, Vekshas managed to get out into the world to stretch their stiff paws and eat nuts found under the trees, as the hunters, seeing a mangy animal, did not even want to waste cartridges.
- Where are the squirrels? Where have you gone? they wondered.
And the "squirrels" simply began to molt, like all other animals. In place of the fallen white fur, red hairs began to grow. The thinner and shabby animals no longer aroused the same enthusiasm among people as before. And the people left, deciding that next winter they would definitely come to this forest again to hunt for squirrels, as they called the white vekshas.
Gradually, the old name of these animals began to be forgotten, and even red vekshas began to be called squirrels. And the squirrels, despite their poor memory, remembered that in winter you need to keep your ears open! That is why we rarely meet squirrels in winter, especially white ones. After all, they are sitting in their houses, where they are full of berries, mushrooms and nuts, listening to see if the hunters are coming?
Almost everyone who likes to walk in the woods has had the good fortune to see a squirrel at least once. This interesting animal is familiar to both adults and very young children. Why does everyone love him so much? Red, fluffy, they deftly run through the trees, jumping from branch to branch again and again. It is very interesting to watch their peculiar game. Want to know more about these cute animals?
- Squirrels are not as energetic during the day as they are in the morning or evening. This time is considered the most active in animals.
- Proteins need large supplies to survive cold winter. 3000 nuts will be enough for her to soak in the cold season.
- Squirrel cubs are born already with fairly well-developed claws, but they still do not see.
- The squirrel's tail helps it steer as it jumps from branch to branch.
- In general, these are solitary animals, but they can spend the cold season together, having gathered in a group of 3-6 individuals.
- The animals make supplies for themselves every autumn, hiding them in various secluded places.
- On the front paws, animals also have vibrissae, as well as on the ears.
- V wild nature Squirrels don't often make it past the age of 4. At home, squirrels live long enough, about 12 years.
- Squirrels love nuts, but peanuts are not digested in their bodies, so they should not be fed.
- Squirrels can give birth at a time from 2 to 11 cubs.
- Their teeth do not stop growing throughout their lives.
- These animals hear very well. Hearing is the most acute sense.
- Squirrels often use their tail as a parachute. It helps to survive falling from a great height.
- The animals themselves molt 2 times a year, and their tail only once a year.
These are such unusual, it turns out, red animals.
Why is a squirrel called a squirrel?
There are different versions of why it was called that. The first version says that the word "squirrel" comes from the word "white". But what's the point here White color if these animals have red or brownish fur? Everyone has long been accustomed to the fact that the squirrel is red. In fact, not all proteins have a similar color. As you know, these animals live in various parts of the world. What is most interesting is that squirrel fur can vary greatly in color in Indonesia. There are even albino squirrels. Such individuals are extremely rare.
The second, more plausible version says that the word "squirrel" comes from the name of the coin, which in the old days was called "white". The question is imposed: “What is the connection between coins and squirrels?” The most direct connection. The fact is that squirrel skins served as this bargaining chip. The animal weighs about 250 g, but at that time it was always in circulation. The fur of animals was also very much appreciated. In addition to squirrels, martens were also used. Money had not yet been invented at that time, so they used such an interesting, but far from harmless option.
It is worth noting that most people tend to the second version. But everyone chooses which version to stick to and what is the answer to the question of why a squirrel is called a squirrel.
What else is it called? More on that below.
Other names
What is another name for a squirrel? Or rather, they were called. Let's remember the old name of the squirrel. In ancient times in Russia, this animal was called a string. He also had another, no less interesting name - veksha. What else is interesting in the world of red squirrels?
Some more interesting facts
Squirrels eat a lot. By right, they can be called very gluttonous. In a week, they can eat as much food as corresponds to their weight. Everyone knows that flying squirrels exist. In fact, they cannot fly for a long time, but only glide from tree to tree.
As mentioned above, the color of the fur is completely different: from white to black. But most often it is red or with shades of brown.
The hind legs are well developed in these small animals, which helps them to deftly run through the trees. The front legs, as you can see, are rather short.
The weight is also not great. An adult weighs no more than 2 kg. But what do these animals eat? Most often they feed on insect larvae, nuts, cones and even small birds.
How to lure a squirrel?
Is it easy to see the animal up close? How to do it? These questions are often of interest not only to children, but also to adults. Indeed, it is insanely interesting to see this fluffy next to you, and not high up on a tree. There is an exit. You can lure a squirrel, but the main thing here is patience.
You can try stretching the nuts to her in an open palm. Since the animals catch the intonation of the voice quite well, you can quietly say something. This method may work, but again, patience and nothing more.
That's so much interesting fraught with a small animal. Now you know why a squirrel is called a squirrel, what it eats and whether it is possible to lure it to you. And finally, the advice is this: walk more in the forest, in the park, breathe fresh air and watch these wonderful animals. The natural world is amazing and beautiful.
Who would have thought that this nimble and agile animal with a fluffy tail, touchingly funny for everyone who happened to watch him, was perceived so ambiguously different nations in ancient times!
Why is a squirrel called a squirrel?
This inquisitive and extremely frisky rodent, which has a red or ash-black skin, has long been called a veveritsa or veksha. The modern name came from the name of the small change "bela", which was precisely the skins of these animals. "Animals", or, as they were also called, "selfish", money was introduced into trade since ancient times. Although the size of the skin is small (the animal itself weighs about 250 grams), squirrel fur has always been in price.
The squirrel, a beautiful fluffy animal, so enlivening with its restless lively disposition the desert silence of the northern gloomy forests, is constantly mentioned in old Russian fairy tales. She jumps from branch to branch, sings, sings, according to storytellers, funny squirrel songs, and she herself - you know, gnaws nuts: not ordinary nuts, their shells are made of pure gold, but pearl grains. If a squirrel accidentally runs from the forest to the village, be thin for the whole village - says the gray-haired folk word. It, this word, wised by centuries of experience, has preserved to this day the belief that if wolves howl through the forest and squirrels jump along the edges, one must wait for either pestilence or war. "Fidget, not a demon!" - wonders about the squirrel.
The squirrel personifies agility, agility, tirelessness - spinning like a squirrel (in a wheel). The physical dexterity of the squirrel also gives rise to the idea of its cunning: bel. cunning yak squirrel. Cunning and the ability to move quickly were attributed to folk beliefs different mythological characters. It was believed that a mermaid, a noon, a devil, a goblin, the dead run very fast ("barely traceable"; "so that they cannot be caught up on a horse"). They move just as fast in space and Greek gods, and immortals of other regions; "Rigveda" says that Vishnu "passed through this world with three steps", while Vishnu's movement had a cosmogonic character, he "crossed the earthly spaces and, stepping three times, strengthened the upper sphere".
The image of a squirrel is presented in folk demonology. In the guise of a squirrel, brownie, water, mermaid can appear to people; according to Russian and Belarusian beliefs, herds of squirrels are in the power of the goblin; in the Lusatian bylinka, the squirrel is the witch's helper. The view of the squirrel as an unclean animal contributed greatly to the fact that squirrel meat was considered inedible. In Slovenia, among the participants in the carnival disguise, depicting a wedding procession, there were dressed up squirrels. In the Polish dream book of the XIX century. a squirrel in a dream is interpreted as a harbinger of a happy marriage or the birth of children. In Slovakia, a piece of fabric used to protect a woman in labor was decorated with embroidered motifs of a squirrel, a rooster, a deer, and a peacock. A piece of squirrel skin was used by the Slovaks when washing a newborn
Perhaps the best opinion about the squirrel was the Japanese, for whom it was a symbol of fertility and inexhaustible ideas and was often depicted next to a vine. The Celts considered her a companion of the Irish goddess Medb, the patroness of supreme power, who personified the earth.
But among the Scandinavians, the squirrel Ratatosk (which means "gnattooth") runs along the World Tree Yggdrasil, symbolizing the trinity of Heaven, Earth and Earth. Underworld, and is an intermediary between the eagle (a heavenly sign) living in its branches, between whose eyes the hawk Vedrfölnir (“shed from the weather”) sits and the serpent Nidhogg (representative of the lower world) living at the roots.
The poor fellow, scurrying around, passed their swear messages to each other. That is why it was considered among these peoples as the bearer of hostility and confusion, chaos. In addition, not only among them, but also among the Slavs, a jumping squirrel was associated with sparkling lightning, i.e. with the element of thunder, through the image of the thunder god it became (together with the eagle) a symbol of war and further - a harbinger of battles and pestilence.
The Slavs often called the squirrel cunning: either for its inherent dexterity, or for the resemblance of a red coat and fluffy tail to a fox. And the children were also frightened by the fact that in her image a brownie, water or mermaid could appear before a person, who, according to ancient beliefs, could move at lightning speed.
On the other hand, the squirrel was depicted on talismans (or its claws were used as such), believing that this would improve well-being. And a meeting with her in a dream promised guests, more precisely, a guest.
However, different Slavic tribes had their own characteristics in their ideas about the symbolic image of a squirrel. Russians and Belarusians believed that the squirrel people were in the power of the goblin. Croats had a taboo on eating squirrel meat to pregnant women for fear that the child might be born black.
In general, in the rituals associated with birth, the squirrel appeared quite often. So, the Slovaks embroidered her image along with the symbols of a rooster, a deer and a peacock on the curtain, with which they fenced off the woman in labor, and washed the newborn with a squirrel skin.
Among the northern peoples, for example, the Komi, in folk calendar there was a month of squirrels (end of January - end of February), which fell at the time when these animals began to rut.
And among the Zoroastrians, the squirrel appeared in the horoscope as the patroness of those born in certain years (the newest time is 1916, 1948, 1980, 2012). According to their ideas, these people should have small facial features, have mobility, uneven character, liveliness, intelligence, high efficiency, housekeeping and the desire to create a family, conservative views. For humanity, these years are fraught with crimes against the innocent, the appearance of evil under the guise of good.
In Christianity, the squirrel symbolizes greed and greed. "Dream Book of Solomon" warns that the appearance of a squirrel in a dream promises a man an acquaintance with a deceitful woman, a loss of fortune, but also ... joy, but for a woman this portends only to be deceived by an unworthy person.
A small, nimble animal, so cute and harmless, why did people reward you with repulsive qualities?
Why is a squirrel called a squirrel?
- because once there lived a little animal, which they didn’t know what to call, she jumped on the branches, she didn’t have tassels on her ears and she loved to gnaw nuts .... and she was also friends with a white hare! and besides, this little animal did not like winter, so they called it squirrel from this ... i.e. white and tan....
- because if they called a friend, you would be the first to ask - why exactly ...
- because she's a squirrel :)
- the question was not correctly asked - why was the delirium tremens called the squirrel, it was necessary to ask))
- COIN and PROTEIN have NOTHING to do with each other.
Bela (Belya) - the name of a coin worn over time that circulated in those days ("drawing" was worn out) The name is formed from the are. (belya) "wear out, decay." - And what was it supposed to be called? Turtle?
- She brightens in the winter, like a white hare.
- Why is the elephant called an elephant....why is the bear called a bear.. It's not a modest question, how old are you, baby?
- personally, they called me a harmful squirrel, because I go home with a ponytail on top of my head ...))
- This question just does not seem naive to me at all.
The etymology of the word "squirrel" is well traced in the annals,
but that doesn't make it any less interesting. "Squirrel" - suffix
derived from the old Russian "bla" (written through "yat",
which I here, due to the poverty of the keyboard, pass as b).
V.I.Dal's form "bla" is still marked as obsolete.
It arose by simplifying the phrase "bla vveritsa",
those. literally "white squirrel" :) The fact is that the "verenitsa" -
the old name for a squirrel in Slavic languages (cf. for example Polish.
"wiewiorka", Serb. "veveritsa", etc.) and our distant ancestors
that's what they called it. "Bla vveritsa" originally referred to
to a rare white variety of these animals. She is probably special
appreciated or otherwise attracted attention - in any case,
gradually the name of these albino squirrels was transferred to
all proteins.
Such phenomena of the transfer of a name from a part to a whole are generally very
common in the history of words. For example, "weather" is originally
denoted only vdro, and now - any state of the atmosphere :)P.S.
While writing, there was a previous answer. This is not true. Exactly
the squirrel (then still was) gave the name to the "coin", and not vice versa.
The phrase "bla vveritsa" was recorded as early as the 9th century
in the Laurentian and Ipatiev Chronicles and in general the etymology
words are considered transparent.
... and the squirrel is very nice :) - This inquisitive and extremely frisky rodent, which has a red or ash-black skin, has long been called a veveritsa or veksha. The modern name has come from the name of the small change Bela, which was precisely the skins of these animals. Animals, or, as they were also called, selfish, money were introduced into trade since ancient times. Although the size of the skin is small (the animal itself weighs about 250 grams), squirrel fur has always been in price.
