I grew up in Northern Michigan. There were always squirrels around.
Mostly fat grey happy fellows,
but a great number of these sassy guys:
(litter mates of the grey ones!)
Now I live in Eastern Canada, and what they call squirrel around here is this:
I think I'm homesick for real squirrels, darn it.
10 comments:
FYI, those are red squirrels. They are unbelieveably destructive little buggers. And they seem to go in cycles - if there are red squirrels around, there won't be any black or grey. Or chipmunks, for that matter. When I lived in NS in university (Antigonish), we had TONS of black squrrels. So, keep your fingers crossed that the cycle will change soon.
Oh, Canada, you give me hope!
I miss the big guys. Maybe I'll take a ride out 'Gonish way and look...
Those squirrels just look mean.
and weirdly those grey squirrels are hated over because they are ousting our native red squirrel population and hunting them into extinction. There are even people who shoot grey squirrels and eat them. Can't do that to the red population as that is endangered.
Thanks for this posting, I am chuffed. In defence of Grey Squirrels,however, it was previously thought that greys were larger and more aggressive in outcompeting reds in Uk which has led to the disappearance of reds. This goes against observations in America where the reds are actually more aggressive despite smaller size. I have seen greys move away when challenged by reds. The latest from UK however is that in fact the reds are not disappearing due to competition but because of illness which may have been brought by the greys. Kind of a new world revenge on the old world.
The university I went to had a beautiful, tree-lined campus... overrun by those grey guys. They were always popping out of trash cans at unexpected moments. In 4 years I never put anything in an outside can -- just carried it with me to my next destination -- for fear that a squirrel would jump out as I was shoving something in!
"Fat Grey Happy Fellows" is a pretty accurate physical description of moi. Ha ha!
I had no idea squirrels hunted one another... creepy. The red squirrel does look like it can kick ass.
Ugh. I got the shivers thinking about those cute little critters hunting each other down.
I've lived in Western Canada my entire life and I think I've only ever seen the red squirrels. I think they're cute, but maybe that's just because I've never seen a grey or black one?
Who knew a post on squirrels would become so popular? ;)
Yes...that tail on the brown one is a poor substitute. What are they feeding those grey ones anyway?
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