This goes up as today’s last post, celebrating National Squirrel Month (yes, I made that up).
I’m not sure what species of squirrel this is (readers?), but this video from the NowThis Facebook page (click on screenshot to see) is heartwarming. The text explains the situation, but note that the tame squirrel treats the man exactly as if he were a tree!
Squirrels don’t make good pets, but this sciurid/primate relationship is still lovely.
h/t: Keith
The squirrels do love their trees. They also seem to have no regard for gravity. To the squirrel, gravity just doesn’t apply.
Gravity keeps on applying, but doesn’t get the job.
Eurasian red squirrel, according to Facebook commenter Sarah Bella, who says she is a wildlife rehabilitator specializing in squirrels.
Sciurus vulgaris. Since the introduction of the Eastern grey squirrel Sciurus carolinensis from America, its population numbers have been dropping drastically in England, Ireland and Italy because it is being out-competed.
This from Wikipedia.
Aww. I once had a special relationship with a squirrel. We weren’t quite that close, but she used to run up to greet me and sit near me.
I really think they’re a lot smarter than people generally know. I’d love to put cameras on them. I’ve been fascinated by their interactions with one another.
A dray-cam shouldn’t be too difficult.
Oops!
That’s sweet. My sister and I have talked about setting up a nest box with a camera. I haven’t thought about squirrels. Despite being within the city limits of Baltimore, we see all sorts of animals in her yard. The question is how to encourage what you want to get and avoid what you don’t want. The first next box we built turned out to be used by a pair of Starlings. Not the intention.
I wonder what we’d have to build to attract squirrels. Usually people want to keep them away.
What I’ve been dying to see is a flying squirrel. We know they’re in the area, but neither of us have seen one. A woman who works at the arboretum told us she found an injured one once.
Well, for birds, the critical thing is the diameter of the hole. I’m not sure what other things you can change to accommodate sqrlz.
Several of the webcams showed drays with quite large entrances (the sockets where benches had been ripped off?) But other people have mentioned recently that some sqrlz make their drays out in the bendy bits of the branches (too thin to support cat-a-likes).
I’m sure you will have a productive day with Google.
The first comment I saw on the Facebook link:
Maja N Pablo I would trade every human friend I have for a squirrel buddy. Seriously, f**k all of you, humans suck.
I had a male labrador retriever once who treated me like a tree.
I used to feed squirrels raw peanuts in the shell but I eventually had to stop because of the mess of empty shells they spread around. I made a couple of observations that surprised me:
1. Squirrels are very greedy and always try to steal food from other squirrels. When a squirrel finds food it immediately grabs it and runs from other squirrels, who immediately chase after it. Once I even saw a pair of squirrels emerge from the same nest and behave like this! Apparently a squirrel will actually try to steal food from its own mate.
2. Wikipedia says “in general squirrels have an excellent sense of vision” yet I’ve found that they can’t see a peanut that’s 2 inches away from their face. They seem to rely purely on smell to find food. They may have good distance vision but if so, they appear to be extremely farsighted.
That’s quite right about the squirrels being unable to see food that’s close to them. If I understand correctly, it’s not their vision exactly, it’s the position of their eyes and the length of their nose. They’ll approach some food on the ground and when they get to a certain point they start groping. I’m under the impression, from no reliable source than my own observation, it’s actually closer to groping than smelling. I’ve seen them stick one too many rocks in their mouths only to drop them a moment later and pick up an adjacent nut. Apparently, most people who are bitten by squirrels are bitten for exactly that reason, which is why I never have them take the nut directly from my hand. I had a chipmunk try to put my pinky in its cheek, which was amusing.
Squirrel interactions always seemed quite complicated to me. You’re entirely right that they steal food from one another, but I found that they are more aggressive with certain squirrels and more tolerant of others, but I could never figure out what determined that behavior. Of course, I was spending so much time with them for a while, I could actually recognize them and distinguish one from another.
Agree on the biting after seeing a half-way working squirrel save. (Dead mother, only 1 survivor at the end to let free.) They sure got a rumor about biting indiscriminately when fed!
Could be the “have to see trees, branches, birds, other predators, competitors” eye positions.
Fortunately, the chipmunk was gathering for later, not eating, so he didn’t use his teeth.
Let’s all hope that Pitek doesn’t have Rabies.
I don’t know much about rabies (lives in a rabies free country, don’t pet stray d*gs abroad), but the Wikipedia oracle says this:
“Lagomorphs, such as hares and rabbits, and small rodents such as chipmunks, gerbils, guinea pigs, hamsters, mice, rats, and squirrels, are almost never found to be infected with rabies and are not known to transmit rabies to humans.[31] Bites from mice, rats, or squirrels rarely require rabies prevention because these rodents are typically killed by any encounter with a larger, rabid animal, and would, therefore, not be carriers.[32]”
[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies ]
Seems Sweden celebrates 140 years of being rabies free just this year. (It is uncommon in West Europe.) [ http://www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se/amnesomraden/smittskydd-och-sjukdomar/smittsamma-sjukdomar/rabies/ ]
In that last week I’ve seen squirrels carrying old leaves from autumn’s fall in their mouths up trees.
In the UK there are the Centre Parcs holiday camps which consist of lots of small lodges in a woodland setting combined with various activities. The squirrels there are very tame as you would expect and will come into the lodge for nuts and will eat out of your hand.
Regarding them stealing each other’s food, chickens do this as well. They are omnivores and if one of them finds something tasty they will run off with it with all the rest chasing after it. Sometimes it resembles a rugby match.
Thanks for reminding me; I’m off to set the recorder for the start of the Six Nations Championship. 🙂
I’d be interested in knowing where this video was taken. There are no grey squirrels in Europe save in the UK where they were introduced from the USA some time ago.
That squirrel looks like it could be a cross between a grey squirrel and a native red squirrel, expressing both coat colours.
Having had to clean up after a mother squirrel that spent the Winter inside our Summer cottage, I would say trying to keep one inside would be a challenge. I have also had a Chipmunk mistake my finger for a peanut I was offering, so while they are darned cute, they do belong outside in the trees.