Lord Rama wanted to cross the bridge to Lanka in order to save Sita from Ravana's clutches. He sat down to pray to the sea god. The sea god, Samudra, arose from the depths of the sea and told Rama to build a bridge across the sea.
All the monkeys got busy building the bridge by placing boulders.
Rama noticed the dedication of this tiny creature. Picking it up on his palm, he warmly stroked the animal with his three fingers. Since then, it is believed that squirrels have three lines on their body.
Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, consisting of small or medium-size rodents. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks,marmots (including woodchucks), flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa, and have been introduced to Australia. The earliest known squirrels date from the Eocene and are most closely related to the mountain beaver and to the dormouse among living rodent families.
