Squirrels in the City

Thanks to their extremely cute features and to Disney's Alvin and the Chipmunks, squirrels in city parks are abundantly fed by picnickers all over the United States. Have they looked like their other rodent cousins like rats and mice, there's no saying how awful their life could have been. This inexplicable affection that city people has for city squirrels, particularly the black ones, even pushed legislators in Marysville, Kansas to pass a bill that seeks to make the rodent their official mascot. The bill also gave the squirrels the complete immunity from all traffic rules and regulation, the right to exclusively pick black walnuts within the city boundaries during the first day of the harvest season and the freedom to visit and exploit all places owned by the city government. To seal their proclamation of being the Black Squirrel City, a fine of $25 is imposed to anyone who harms squirrels within the city. Residents also attach boxes to trees to serve as a house for squirrels because of the common notion that these rodents can bring good luck.

In other cities around the United States, squirrels may not be as "loved" as much as those that live in Marysville, but they are still getting enough food each day. Picnickers incessantly feed them with peanuts, junk food and every kind of food that they have with them. And, squirrels are not picky; they will nibble on anything that you give them, a characteristic that makes people love them more. Nevertheless, despite the almost absurd fondness of most people to these rodents, squirrels are still not entirely safe in the metropolis; just consider hungry street cats and speedy vehicles to get the picture. So, how do city squirrels live their lives? This article will attempt to understand.

Food Chases

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Although squirrels in the city are fed by picnickers and homeowners with all sorts of foods, these rodents are still most fond of Acorn. When they spot an Acorn, they because extremely cunning in finding a way to conceal their find from the squirrels around them (since squirrels in the city live close to each other unlike when they are in the wild). The other squirrels who observed the discovery will also not hesitate to steal the Acorn from the lucky squirrel and the food chase will start.

To prevent other squirrels from stealing a precious Acorn, it will start a shell game. Surprisingly, squirrels know how to "pretend" that they are hiding their Acorn in a fake location. The game starts with the squirrel making digging motions on the ground coupled with motions that seem to depict the jamming of several Acorns into the hole. The squirrel when smoothens the grass on top of the supposed hiding place to complete the drama. Immediately after that, the squirrel will run off with the Acorn still inside its mouth and find a real hiding place where it is almost certain that no other squirrels will find the treasure in its mouth.

What's funnier about this behaviour is that most of the time, it is not the same squirrel that digs up the hidden Acorn treasure comes winter time. The fact is that squirrels do not retrieve whatever they have buried by memory; instead, they find them with their nose. Now, squirrels will just come sniffing every inch of ground where they are most likely to hide food.

Outsmarting Control Measures

Although they are generally loved by city people, there are some citizens who really do not like having squirrels in their yard because of the following reasons:

1. They mess up with expensive flowers grown in rare city gardens.
2. They dig up landscaped lawns which are really costly in the city.
3. Squirrels have the tendency to nibble on the wooden materials in the house; again, repairs can be costly too.
4. They eat the seeds inside bird feeders which are meant to invite birds into city backyards which is extremely rare.

Of course, the three reasons given above are only examples as homeowners may have their own reasons in mind. But, whatever their reasons are, these homeowners are one and the same when it comes to squirrel control. They use devices to keep the squirrels away, most especially from the bird feeders. But, squirrels that live in the city are smart and by experience, they have learned how to outsmart these devices. By trial and error, squirrels are able to identify the weakness of the device and find a way to get through it.

Food Smart

Squirrels are also smart enough to sort out shelled Hazelnuts from those which are not. Squirrels collect unshelled Hazelnuts for immediate consumption while they gather and hide Hazelnuts with shell for future use. Moreover, squirrels have an impressive skill in identifying good and bad Acorns. Acorns which look perfectly normal through a human's eye may not be ideal for long-term storage and squirrels know how to identify those types of Acorns.

They consume these types of Acorn to sustain them for the day and they keep those that can last long so that they can dig them up when food becomes scarce. If the squirrels do not find Acorns that can be kept for a long a time, it will "process" those available Acorns. By scraping out the embryo of the seed, they are able to make the seed last longer than its normal storing period.

Squirrel Lovers

You are very wrong to ever think that the only ones who care about squirrels are the scientists who study them. It has been made clear in this article that lots of people do. In fact, if you will Google "Squirrel", the top search results would be websites that are solely dedicated to protecting squirrels, knowing more about squirrels and all the other things about squirrels. There are so many Squirrel-related clubs too that hundreds of thousands of members across the world. Examples of such clubs are the very famous The Squirrel Lover's Club and the different Squirrel Clubs based in various universities in the United States.