A lovely leaping squirrel

March 9, 2014 • 4:36 pm

From the Torygraph’s latest edition of “Animal Photos of the Week” (there are several more, but this is my favorite):

potd-squirrel_2845650k

The caption: “With a nut safely stored in his mouth a red squirrel bounds around Kielder Forest, Northumberland. Picture: OWEN HUMPHREYS/PA”

There are 30 photos, but I especially like #s 14, 28, and 29.

h/t: Roo

20 thoughts on “A lovely leaping squirrel”

  1. Knowing nothing about the European Red Squirrel, I went searching, but some of what I found was disheartening:

    “The red squirrel is native to Britain, but its future is increasingly uncertain as the introduced American grey squirrel expands its range across the mainland. There are estimated to be only 140,000 red squirrels left in Britain, with over 2.5 million greys.” — UK Forestry Commission site

    The gray squirrel is my local native one (along with the California ground squirrel) and it’s always surprising to learn that one of ours is making problems elsewhere. So often it’s our native species being crowded out by introduced ones from Europe, or elsewhere. Endless moving of species with rapid changes resulting everywhere.

    1. Yes, and I once told a Brit we’d take back our Gray Squirrels if they’d take back their House Sparrows. I was told he’d be delighted to; apparently House Sparrows (I’m sure the British have a different common name for them) are also suffering in at least some parts of GB.

      Invasive irony.

      1. It may have been me. House sparrows used to be ubiquitous in London – they are rare or never seen now though they hang on in more rural areas. It could be that they throve because of horses but other reasons for their decline are loss of nesting areas & – grey/gray squirrels which are known to rob nests.

        1. Actually I think you were one of two I’ve had similar discussions with here. As you note below, this subject’s arisen before; but not everyone sees as many posts as you and I do.

          So funny about your House Sparrows–as I’m sure you know ours absolutely thrive in urban areas.

  2. Red squirrels were common where I grew up in the rural Midwest, as were grays. We called the red ones fox squirrels. I understand from old friends still in the area that the fox squirrels have all but disappeared.

    1. Red Squirrels and Fox Squirrels are different species (though knowing common names, it’s possible that in some areas the names are used, uh, idiosyncratically…)

      I have all 3 spp (those two plus Gray Squirrels), but definitely few Fox Squirrels.

    2. The animals you call red squirrels, more commonly called fox squirrels, are different from the European red squirrel. Sciurus niger (fox) vs. S. vulgaris (Eur. red). I don’t believe the European red squirrel has become established anywhere in N Am. Just to keep things confused, there is also an American red squirrel, but it’s more distantly related and generally put into another genus (Tamiasciurus).

      The fox squirrel has been introduced into southern CA and has spread throughout the LA Basin, though mostly in urban areas as far as I know. There is concern about whether it will spread into the mountains and displace the native gray squirrels there. More moving pieces and cascading changes?

      1. Thanks to both you and Diane G. for your comments. Where I lived, it was common names all the way. I have no idea if our squirrels were really fox or red squirrels.

        There was a ground squirrel known locally as a “grinny” or a “greeny” (honestly, I never knew for sure; I wasn’t born there and the community was just insular enough to have a hint of Deliverance wafting about. I learned to not ask too many questions.)

        Anyway,I discovered that “grinny” was such a local term that people 50 miles away didn’t know it.

        1. That’s amazing. Guess I was sort of right about the ‘idiosyncratic’ usage, though I really need some term meaning ‘tribe-o-syncratic’…

          I’m just guessing that religion was big there, too. 🙂

  3. That is a great picture.

    Also, watch for the upcoming outrage from Christians (especially Catholics) over the first episode of the new Cosmos series that aired tonight.

  4. The native squirrel we have here is the Douglas Squirrel, Tamiasciurus douglasii. It is similar to the Red Squirrel, Tamiasciurus hudsonicus but their ranges don’t much overlap.

    The BC SPCA page casts some doubt that the non-native Eastern Grey Squirrel displaces the smaller squirrel given that they have co-existed in Stanley Park since 1909 when the Grey was introduced.

    1. This is Sciurus vulgaris – & occurs across Eurasia. Obviously never made it across Beringia – presumably a lack of trees in the cold periods when the bridge was open.

  5. Over the weekend I watched a TV show about Ireland’s Shannon River. Apparently the river has proved an effective barrier, for now, to the spread of the grey squirrel west, protecting the reds. The show host also mentioned that increasing pine martin populations may help them by preying more effectively on the greys. Reds are smaller and quicker and harder to make a meal of.

    1. Oooh, you can never have enough mustelids!

      BTW (because I think you’d like to know), the animal is a marten; the bird’s a martin.

  6. There are interesting variations in color of the gray squirrel across eastern North America. Some regions have a darker, melanistic variant. I believe these are common in parts of Canada, and also (oddly) some parks around Washington, DC.

    Are the grays in the UK the lighter or dark variety?

  7. We live more or less on the line that divides the greys from the reds. When growing up reds were common and we often saw them in the large sweet chestnut tree in our garden. I was in my late teens before I saw a grey squirrel and that was on a visit to Edinburgh. Now it’s common to see grey squirrels but red squirrels have to be sought out. They are still easy to see if you know where to go. I expect in a few years time we will have only greys though.

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