{"id":80,"date":"2012-12-30T02:24:04","date_gmt":"2012-12-30T02:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midjistephenson.com\/?page_id=80"},"modified":"2012-12-30T02:28:58","modified_gmt":"2012-12-30T02:28:58","slug":"additional-tail-information","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/midjistephenson.com\/?page_id=80","title":{"rendered":"Additional Tail Information"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mountain short-horned lizard<\/strong>:\u00a0 the tail, a short, spiny stub, is brownish in color with darker brown stripes or lines.\u00a0 The lizard\u2019s squat, flattish body is usually 2 to 4 inches long and the tail is about half the body length.\u00a0 The total body length, from head to tail tip, can range from 2 \u00bd to almost 6 inches.<\/p>\n

Desert cottontail<\/strong>:\u00a0 the tail is 2 to 3 inches long but looks shorter.\u00a0 The white underside, which looks like a cotton ball, often shows, especially when the cottontail is running.<\/p>\n

Mule deer<\/strong>:\u00a0 the tail is 5 to 8 inches long and white with a black tip.\u00a0 The tail is often raised when the deer is bounding.<\/p>\n

Abert\u2019s squirrel<\/strong>:\u00a0 the tail is long\u20147 to 9 inches\u2014fluffy, and gray on top with white on the underside.\u00a0 You will only see this tail on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.\u00a0 On the North Rim, you may see a similar squirrel, the Kaibab squirrel, which has a pure white tail.<\/p>\n

Porcupine<\/strong>:\u00a0 the tail is 7 to 9 inches long and is usually carried low or at ground level.\u00a0 The tail has special hair in the form of quills.\u00a0 Porcupines do not actually throw quills although the quills can come out when the animal shakes its body or tail.<\/p>\n

Mountain lion<\/strong>:\u00a0 the tail is 24 to 36 inches long\u2014almost one third of the lion\u2019s total body length.\u00a0\u00a0 The lion\u2019s tail, which often twitches, is usually carried low and the end is slightly curled upward.<\/p>\n

Desert bighorn sheep<\/strong>:\u00a0 the tail, which is only 4 to 5 inches long, is a dark brown and not nearly as obvious as the white rump patch.<\/p>\n

Grand Canyon rattlesnake<\/strong>:\u00a0 the tail, an extension of the body, has a rattle on the end that is used as a warning device.\u00a0 Every time the snake sheds its skin, it adds another segment to its rattle.\u00a0 This venomous snake, often called a pink rattlesnake, can be any color from gray tan to a salmon pink.\u00a0 An adult snake can be 2 to 3 \u00bd feet long.<\/p>\n

Bobcat<\/strong>: \u00a0the tail is 4 to 6 inches long and looks bobbed or shortened.\u00a0 The top is a tawny brown with a black tip and the underside is white.<\/p>\n

Coyote<\/strong>:\u00a0 the tail, which is bushy and 11 to 15 inches long, usually has a black tip.\u00a0 The coyote carries its tail lower than its back and, when running, it often holds its tail between its legs.<\/p>\n

Ringtail<\/strong>:\u00a0 the tail, which is 12 to 17 inches long, has 14 to 16 alternating bands of black and white, the tip always being black.\u00a0 The tail is about half the total length of the ringtail.<\/p>\n

Beaver<\/strong>:\u00a0 the tail, which is 15 to 21 inches long, is paddle-shaped and scale covered.\u00a0 Beavers slap their tails on the water as a way of communicating.<\/p>\n

Western spotted skunk<\/strong>:\u00a0 the tail is bushy and black except for the last 1\/3 to 1\/4 of it which is white.\u00a0 It is 5 to 7 inches long.\u00a0 When the skunk feels threatened, it stands on its front paws with its white spotted hind end up in the air; it can spray up to 10 feet from this position.<\/p>\n

Humans<\/strong>:\u00a0 do not have a real tail but if you look at a picture of a human skeleton, you will see that we do have a tail bone (the coccyx) which is usually 3 or 4 fused vertebral remnants.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The primary sources for this information are: Hoffmeister\u2019s Mammals of Grand Canyon<\/span>, the Audubon<\/span> and Peterson Field<\/span> Guides to Mammals<\/span>, Tekiela\u2019s Mammals of Arizona Field Guide<\/span>, Miller\u2019s Amphibians and Reptiles of the Grand Canyon National Park<\/span>, and wildlife biologist, Barry Spicer. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0(Copyright Midji Stephenson 18 May 2012)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mountain short-horned lizard:\u00a0 the tail, a short, spiny stub, is brownish in color with darker brown stripes or lines.\u00a0 The lizard\u2019s squat, flattish body is usually 2 to 4 inches long and the tail is about half the body length.\u00a0 The total body length, from head to tail tip, can range from 2 \u00bd to […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":19,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midjistephenson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/80"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midjistephenson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midjistephenson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midjistephenson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midjistephenson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/midjistephenson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/80\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82,"href":"https:\/\/midjistephenson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/80\/revisions\/82"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midjistephenson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midjistephenson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}