Today, January 21, is National Squirrel Appreciation Day, so if you see one of those little critters scampering across the road or stealing bird seed from your feeders on top of tall poles, take another look at him, chuckle and admire some of the great things about squirrels.
First of all, there are more than 200 species of squirrels….if you count in chipmunks, prairies dogs, marmots and flying squirrels, all of whom are cousins to the common ground squirrel prevalent in parks, back yards and tree tops. They’re on every continent in the world except for Australia and Antarctica. Ground squirrels lime natural forests, especially those with lots of oak or hickory trees, and are really only in parks and public grounds in Australia.
They are great scavengers, and eat most anything, which is both good and bad. It’s good because they would rarely starve, inasmuch as they eat nuts, fruits, beans, vegetables, sees, and even carcasses if they are hungry enough. But they have an inability of upchucking any bad food, so tummy aches are a distinct possibility for short times.
Squirrels have teeth that never stop growing. They are born with four incisors that are kept sharp with all the acorn and nut chewing squirrels do. But they grow about five inches every year of a squirrel’s life, so it’s necessary for them to gnaw down on those hard wood, including trees, just to keep them trimmed and sharp. An average ground squirrel’s life is five to six years.
Squirrels are jumpers … they can leap ten times their length which explains how they can get from one tree to another…or how they can get up on telephone poles and chew through some wires to cause irritating phone or electrical shortages. There is such a thing as flying squirrels. They are a night creature, don’t really fly, but can soar for some 300 feet because of strong muscles and a unique ability. They also have sharper eyesight for all that night flying.
Squirrels are scavengers, always hunting…and finding…new food sources. But they are also savers with incredible memories; they will take nuts,, peanuts, seeds and other edibles to hiding places all over their territory. Surprisingly, they remember most of them and return to retrieve another meal. But they also skip over or forget some of their hiding places, and that contributes to the environment with little buried seeds growing into thriving plants or trees.
Once their little ones are grown, squirrels like them out of the nest. Adult squirrels prefer to live solitary lives within their nest,…except when it’s cold. That’s when they will invite another squirrel to share the nest for greater warmth.
It’s difficult to keep squirrels from food sources they readily remember and like, those bird feeders for instance. Try a dome baffle, or cages around the feeders. Tube feeders and suet cages make it more difficult, but the average, busy, ingenious, hungry squirrel can find ways to combat the inconveniences.
In the end…better just to appreciate the beauty and active loving antics of a visiting squirrel and put out a few peanuts in the hopes of keeping him from the feeders.
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