Pretty charismatic for a rodent, right? Photo by Simon J. Tonge
Last week I read a news story about an investigation launched by police after a squirrel was shot in Scotland- the issue here is not just that a squirrel was shot, but that a red squirrel was shot. In the UK, red squirrels are a protected species and various organizations are engaged in trying to keep the species, familiar to many of us from Beatrix Potter stories, from disappearing from the British Isles. In contrast, the fox and gray squirrels where I live are not only fair game, but served up for dinner- last week I also met some very friendly squirrel dogs who looked like they have the kind of stamina needed to pursue their quarry.
Quite a different state of affairs for the three species: the first is subject to conservation efforts in one place, and the other two are subject to bag limits in another. The disparity between these situations made me think about other squirrel species and wonder how other populations are faring. Most of my personal experience with squirrels comes from seeing them in the trees as I walk around outside and caring for orphaned and injured animals in Texas- in either case, squirrels seemed to have a lot of energy and even rage at times (it takes a lot of energy to yell so much at people as they walk by- not sure that I want to imagine the level of angst needed to sustain that behavior…). I also have a basic sense of squirrel ecology (eating nuts, sleeping in trees, piling up with other squirrels to keep warm in cold weather), but I don’t know much about squirrel conservation or even if such efforts are needed; red squirrels in the UK are protected, but red squirrels in the US, a completely different species, are not.
So this month I’m going to see what I can dig about squirrel populations around the world- my guess is that some species are doing just fine, but there are probably some populations that are faced with a changing world and limited options for addressing those changes.