They’ll never replace cats, but squirrels are the Official Website Rodent™. Here are two great ones..
The first is from photographer Andrei Stancu (see his site for lots of great squirrel photos), and has been captioned:
“Well you can tell by the way I use my walk—I’m a woman’s man, no time to talk”
He’s clearly on his way to get two slices.
And this is from reader “w”, who labels it “squirrel exultant.” Atheists will see it as celebrating the wonders of life; religionists as praising God for making a world that was intelligently designed to contain nuts:
p.s. If you haven’t looked at Matthew’s post right below, please do so immediately. It’s an amazing video of how falcons hunt using falcon-mounted cameras.
And on the fourth day God created squirrels, and in His own image created He them. And it was good.
Don King & Benny Hinn.
Yes, I can see that…
Who knew squirrels were so operatic?
The Bee Gees are sooooo seventies.
That little guy is more like Right Said Fred:
I’m too sexy for your party
Too sexy for your party
No way I’m disco dancing
I’m a model you know what I mean
And I do my little turn on the catwalk
Yeah on the catwalk on the catwalk yeah
I shake my little touche on the catwalk…
I was going to say that the second one looks like he’s conducting the symphony, but it turns out squirrel conductors are a real thing.
Who knew indeed?
“religionists as praising God for making a world that was intelligently designed to contain nuts:”
I lost my sip of coffee on that one! So RIGHT in so many ways.
A plausible sciurological argument for a deity:
« praising God for being nuts enough to design a world that contains intelligent squirrels. »
Great pictures.
I really love these pictures. It makes me think of our long ago ancestors who might have done the same thing and then thought, hmm, this upright thing works for me 😉
Love the photos and the attitudes.
Official Website Rodent? I guess I should have expected that, but was there ever a proper competition? Did the guinea pigs and their host of Neotropical relatives ever get their say? Did that charming porcupine from a couple of weeks back get considered? Was the fact that kangaroo rats nicely falsify key aspects of creation mythology entered into the record?
Apart from creationism, kangaroo rats are clearly superior to squirrels. They’re cuter, they’re better at both hopping and burrowing, they’re use water more efficiently, and they live in better habitats. Further, when camping in their respective habitats, kangaroo rats neither chatter obnoxiously at me nor drop things on my tent.
Yes, and K-rats are quite gentle. I only know of one species that will bite when live-trapped. Most are almost tame when first captured — except that they’ll jump away at the first opportunity. Their close relatives the pocket mice are the same way.
Squirrels are just rats with fancy-pants tails – rats rule!
They are great pictures. Thanks for sharing.
Falcons hunt by means of falcon-mounted cameras? Sorry, couldn’t resist…
Yes, the more advanced ones use laser targeting.
”praising God for making a world that was intelligently designed to contain nuts” …. I love that explanation!
Anybody see this one yet?
Perty funny!
Ha Ha Ha, what wonderful photos! Made my day. : -)
& sub
“It’s an amazing video of how falcons hunt using falcon-mounted cameras.”
I wonder how they hunted before cameras were invented? (;P)
I have a contribution, if you find it worthy, for the squirrel archives.
First, please forgive the video quality. This was from a documentary I made 40 years ago about a cantankerous old codger who 50 years previously had been one of the earliest settlers on Marrowstone Island, near Port Townsend, WA. It was shot on the high speed film stock of the time, but it was in very dark Pacific Northwest woods, and looks awfully grainy today.
Finis Stevens (his name)was definitely a self-made man, and would have clearly qualified as a tea partier today. He was suspicious of all things governmental, all things urban, and any one over the age of 18 who couldn’t take care of themselves.
But he had a soft spot for squirrels, and to some degree for younger kids, so he established a park on part of his land on Marrowstone, and went there everyday to train the squirrels so he could show them off to visitors.
He believed he’d demonstrated intelligence in these squirrels — douglas squirrels, Tamiasciurus douglasii –– that no else, including the pointy-headed professor who came out to visit him, had been able to demonstrate. And who’s to say he didn’t?
The squirrels lived on conifer seeds, but they performed for peanuts. The best-performing dog had recently died, and Finis was in the midst of training another dog to let the squirrels ride around on his back. The one he was trying to train was a coyote mix (he claimed), and was still nipping at the squirrels when I shot this.
Anyway, here’s Finis and his squirrels. I’m afraid I didn’t really do justice to the three ring circus nature of the performance, because it was so dark and there was so much going on so quickly. What it doesn’t show is how Finis would arrive at his training grounds, set down his bucket of peanuts, and call out, “Hey Skippy! Hey Leaper!” and 20 or more squirrels would come running out of the woods. He claimed to know each one by name.
Here’s the link:
You should be able to embed it if you’d like.
That was delightful! 😀 And so is the backstory; thanks for contributing this.
That was an interesting little video. Did Finis make things difficult for you during filming?
I got the feeling he was one of those who needs to show he’s better and in charge. His story about the visiting professor was clearly wildly inaccurate and designed to show he knew more than that guy full of “book-learnin” who probably couldn’t park a bicycle straight, etc.
I realize my background story left a rather negative impression of Finis Stevens, and I shouldn’t have done that. While he was a classic curmudgeon, with a strong libertarian bent to his politics and great skepticism regarding government, he was from a different era. He was born around the turn of the last century, and he was a pioneer of Marrowstone island, clearing land for his farm, and supporting himself and his family from that farm for over 60 years. He loved nature, and while he had some peculiar theories, he was a kind and well-intentioned individual.
He didn’t make things difficult for me in the least. He wanted to tell his story to the world, and was fully aware I was giving him the opportunity to do that. He treated me well, and was very cooperative.
And while I only heard his version of the story of the visiting professor, I think there was likely at least a kernel of truth in it.
I just found this. We bought land next to Finis Stevens. In fact he owned the land in 1920s and gave 20 acres away to a friend and they built our house. He proudly showed the movie you made to us before we bought the land and several other times when I invited him to a 4-H meeting and a Community Club meeting. Many island residents have learned from your documentary. My children and I walked with Finis almost every day until 1984 and we had to move for 3 years. Finis no longer was driving when we returned, but we had him over regularly. He was from a different time. He had some very odd ideas about women. Until he met Betty from Philadelphia and they got married. We still enjoy the squirrels, but Nature Trails Park has been divided and big houses have been built. I thank you for the film that you made about Finis and his love of squirrel.
What a nice story! Thanks so much for letting me know the documentary is still appreciated after all these years. Do you still live on Marrowstone? I haven’t been there in many years. I made a digital copy of the film, which can be seen here. I offered it to the Jefferson County Historical Society to use on their website several years ago, but they didn’t seem interested.
Best,
Alan
Realized after I sent that I forgot to add the link. Here it is:
Yes. We still live on Marrowstone in the same old house and big trees. Finis logged the land in 1923 and some of the old trees with notches for the spring boards are still there. Today a small herd of elk was spotted near Finis’s frog pond. What would he say??? The island has changed so much since you made the movie. I do know that Finis was very proud of the documentary that you made. Thank you for adding the link. It will be fun to watch again and remember Finis. He also trained the Jays and Towees.
We bought the house on the top of Finis Trail fall 2021. We live next door to Linda Gately. When we wander around our property we often think about Finis and wonder if this is where he met up with his squirrels. I really enjoyed watching the video and learn about the history of the man that logged where we live today.