Some thoughts about squirrels
“Even a blind squirrel gets a nut once in a while.” — Often quoted by Bill Werkeiser
While we were out of town for a few weeks, a squirrel got into our house. Before we left we had heard the pitter patter of little feet in our attic so we knew some unwelcome critters were up there. But after a hole was found and plugged up, we thought the problem had been corrected.
Steve agreed to water our plants while we were gone and one day he noticed a messed up area on one of our windowsills caused by some little critter downstairs where we live. He told us about it and how he had our campus facilities personnel check it out to make sure the problem had been corrected. They assured us when we came home that all was well.
Since then we have not heard a sound from those visitors. We never did know what kind of animal was in our house. For some time, however, both Evie and I have been finding walnuts in the most unusual places. We have found them in a flower pot, under a pillow in our guest room, on the window ledge above the first half of a window, at the top of a curtain rod and in numerous unexpected nooks and crannies. We found nearly two dozen. Only a squirrel would do that.
After we got over the reality of something being in our house while we were gone, we were amazed at the tenacity and ingenuity of these little animals. Of course, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I have seen them exert many creative efforts to get into the bird feeders in our backyard. And no matter what kind of “squirrel-free” feeders I have, I usually lose and the squirrels win.
Did you know that there are more than 250 species of squirrels in the world? Of those many species, there are three types: the tree squirrel, the ground squirrel, and the flying squirrel. To my surprise, Australia has no squirrels.
The smallest squirrel, the African pygmy, is from 2.8 to 5 inches long and weighs just .35 ounces whereas the Indian giant, the world’s largest, grows up to 36 inches and weighs up to 4 pounds.
The grey squirrel is the most common squirrel in North America. It is very territorial and will fight to the death to defend its territory. The average grey squirrel will eat about one pound of food per week. Most people think squirrels only eat nuts but as omnivores, they eat plants and meat.
These familiar backyard creatures have four teeth in the front of their mouths and they constantly grow. This way their teeth do not wear down to nubs gnawing on nuts and other hard objects. They can find food buried beneath a foot of snow. They zig zag to escape predators.
Squirrels are known for hiding their food for winter. They may lose up to 25 percent of their buried food to thieves. Sometimes they pretend to bury a nut to throw off potential thieves. They may not even dig up all of their nuts which results in more trees growing.
According to Etienne Benson in “The Urbanization of the Eastern Gray Squirrel in the United States,” squirrels did not originally live in urban centers. But between 1840 and 1860, Philadelphia was the pioneering city to introduce free-living squirrels to the city landscape. In 1847, three squirrels were released in Philadelphia’s Franklin Square and were provided with food and boxes for nesting. More were added later to sweeten our metropolitan world with a little bit of natural charm.
Soon Boston and New Haven, Connecticut, along with a host of other cities followed Philadelphia’s example. Today squirrels are as common in public places as birds.
Next time you see one of these furry little creatures, you may want to take a closer look.
Think about it.