That there is what we who livein the wood of northern Wisconsin call a chipmunk.
However, in some areas, chipmunks are refered to as ground squirells, so everyone's a winner!

it's definatly a squirrel. Look at the shape of the head.

ya, its head is too disproportionate to be a chipmunks. definitely a baby squirrel.

hehe, its impressive that gizmodo didnt make a skeezy remark about squirrels in pants.

It's called a Sugar Glider... >.<

I bet that ground squirrel is hoping that dudes MacBook wasn't on the battery recall list :P

Being from Northern California and now in Northern Illinois, I recognize that as a chipmunk, no doubt. You can tell by the color on the back. Actually it looks like a baby chipmunk.. how exciting.

@ Ottermann - you beat me to it... Is this a picture of a Toe-mayyy-toe, or a picture of a Toe-mahhhh-toe?

From dictionary.com's definition of CHIPMUNK

any of several small, striped, terrestrial squirrels ....

Freakin animal abuse. Poor animal is going to grow up to be one of those artsy fartsy condescnding types who use Macs...

thanox2 is right. It is a sugar glider, so the question regarding which rodent prefers a macbook is doesn't allow for a correct answer, as sugar gliders are marsupials.

Not exactly, dude. That is a chipmunk (because it's stripes don't have spots). Ground squirrels that have stripes have white spots in the brown sections, otherwize they're not striped at all.

I know this for the following nerdy reasons:
-My sister is a mammalogist
-I live in the midwest (with a family of "13 lined" ground squirrels
-I've seen more than one episode of Chi-chi-chi-chip and dales rescue rangers
-I searched google images

next time you fellers ag Giz need me to sort out some critters fer ya, let me know

@bobvilla/drumz0rx - it is very common for baby mammals to have disproportionately large heads/ misshapen heads when compared to the heads of adults (compare the ratio/ features of a baby human's head to body to the ratio/ features of an adult human's head to body). I would say that a more difinitive answer can be found by google image searching 'baby chipmunk' and comparing the coloration of the chimpunk in the video (I found the www.maaoravat.com link to be very helpful with pictures of a seemingly identical animal - look at the striping pattern). Then search 'baby squirrel' and note the different coloration.

Essentially, this animal is a chipmunk, which makes it a specific type of squirrel (all chipmunks are squirrels, but all squirrels are not chipmunks)

Ahhh, that high school Animal Behavior/ Zoology class is proving useful after all.
:-)

Its a antelope ground squirrel. There all over the place in Iowa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammospermophilus

heh DeadPlasmaCell beat me to it. I was gonna say "Where a battery fire when you need one".

How can it be a chipmunk, it's not wearing a colored shirt.

It's obviously Steve Ballmer. I hope I don't have to explain why that is.

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/critters/Sugar_Gliders/Ima...

IT IS NOT A SUGAR GLIDER you Dolt's

It's Alvin's youngest son.

It's actually Lemmiwinks.

The question I have is: why the guy has a baby animal in his lap while using his MacBook?

@hypereric:

I'm an IT guy. I spend all day fixing Windows XP-based boxes/Server 2k3 based servers...and shuddering about what work is gonna be like when we start adopting Vista.

So I go home to a mac. I don't worry about checking e-mail, getting viruses, driver updates, renewing my suscription to Norton, or anything for that matter. I do enough worrying of that sort at work, x300 (idiotic) end users.

Does that make me an artsy fartsy condescending type? Or just more interested in using a computer that works without requiring all that much upkeep? Or maybe just lazy? :P

Amen, honozooloo.
I am neither artsy nor fartsy.... well sometimes fartsy, but only after eating Thai.

I thought for a moment that it was a sugar glider, but it isn't. It's a chipmunk. We have about ten million of them running all over the place here, and that's that it is. Some people do keep them as pets.

My cat Mina likes to crash on top of the DVR! She chose this spot after I replaced my CRT monitor with an LCD.

Ya thats a chipmunk.... i got bit by one when i was little. I grabbed it off the bird feeder and it bit right into the meaty part of my hand.... damn did it hurt.

It's a chipmunk, damn it. Look it up in OS X's Dictionary and you'll see a purdy picture.

We had a bunch around our old house (in MN) that we fed. They'd sit in our hands and stuff their cheeks with sunflower seeds or chomp on dried cranberries. There was Lenny, our favorite, Laverne, Shirley, (Squiggy was already taken by our cat), and the Gilligans, which were a couple youngins we couldn't tell apart.

It's a Chipmunk, waddya blind?

Hi, I'm a squirrel...

And I'm a chipmunk.

I'm sorry, but you're all wrong: that there is what we call a Striped Crotch Rat, which is often confused with the common trouser-mouse. Either way, they's good eatin'.

Ok ok!! It's a Dog that looks like a squirrel and behaves like a chipmunk!

Chipmunks *are* squirrels.

You are all wrong.

It's dinner.

honoloozoo: get a sense of humor or the crotch rat'll eat your nuts.

Here in Australia we have neither chipmonks nor squirrels, so I postulate it's either an aphid or an iguana.

See for yourself...

Baby Chipmunk:
http://www.maaoravat.com/Maaoravat/Photos/MaaoravanPoikane...

Baby Squirrel:
http://www.wildforever.org/images/Baby%20squirrel.jpg

Sugar Glider:
http://www.conservationcentre.org/images/sglider1.JPG

its a sugar glider....I have one..hahaha its in the marsupial (sp) family.