The big question is “Why?”! Recently several residents of the Queens borough of New York City have reported unprovoked squirrel attacks. This isn’t following any sort of interaction, like feeding or chasing, so everyone is very puzzled. (Note: Fortunately, per the local health authority, squirrels aren’t typically carriers of rabies, though at least one victim opted to get a rabies shot.)
A local co-operative (groceries, etc.) has adopted squirrels as a mascot since they are plentiful in the neighborhood in which they’re located.
This graphic was used to promote a “drive by and pick up your grocery order from your car” campaign during the early months of the COVID19 pandemic.
Mum was fed up of the squirrels stealing all the bird food so she greased the feeder! pic.twitter.com/k2eAyqSWvK
— The Cute Plug (@TheCutePlug) February 11, 2020
Apparently these are very tasty suet blocks!
Aren’t squirrels brillia… HANG ON, THOSE SUET BLOCKS AREN’T CHEAP, YOU GREEDY BUGGER pic.twitter.com/QawA0ZBG8l
— Adrian Clark (@adrianclark) February 3, 2020
Do you ever labor long and tend your fruit trees with loving care, watering and feeding, trimming and pruning, in hopes of a bounteous harvest — only to have squirrels come and take the fruit?
You know the explanation, don’t you? They can’t help it. They’re vampsquirrels…as relayed in this squirrelly story.
Have you ever visited Unsplash.com? Beautiful photos, free for most usages. An attribution is always welcome.
For example, this fellow from Norfolk (UK).
Squirrel hat! Squirrel hat! pic.twitter.com/HgajG5UvQg
— The Thanatos Archive (@thanatos_net) February 19, 2018
We’re taking a bit of a side trip here to another branch of the order Rodentia, from the suborder Sciuromorpha (wherein squirrels dwell) to the suborder Castorimorpha, Genus Castor, to our friend the American beaver.
This article from The Atlantic magazine (June 2012), includes a tale from the 1940s when Idaho’s Department of Fish and Game dropped parachuted crates of beavers to repopulate the wilderness and — quite progressively — improve the ecological balance thereby. (Current application: think climate change.)
Picture credit: OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
That’s the number of squirrels counted in the tally by volunteers at New York’s Central Park.
Read this great article from Smithsonian.com which includes a succinct history of the creatures, from the 1800s on, including a mob gawking at an escaped pet squirrel in 1856.
Why the count? “We do it for the squirrels, because it makes us happy.”
