If you’re feeling squirrely this week, it might be because Thursday is Squirrel Appreciation Day.
Jan. 21 is National Squirrel Appreciation Day. The little-known day was founded by North Carolina wildlife rehabilitator Christy Hargrove in 2001 as a way to celebrate squirrels.
A quick Facebook poll by the Gazette dug up a midden’s worth of squirrel appreciators in St. Albert, one of whom was Tina Doucette.
“I actually have three squirrels in my yard,” she said, each of which jealously guards its own territory.
An animal lover, Doucette said she fell in love with squirrels after she moved to Grandin in 2011 and played host to a litter of them in her backyard.
“I think they’re the cutest little fluffy things,” she said.
Doucette said she has since had squirrels living under her shed and woodpile, built shelters for them and even given one palliative care. Her current main tenant is a rapscallion she had dubbed Scruffy.
“He’s taken over my barbecue,” she said, and has stuffed it full of peanuts and bedding.
Doucette said she feeds Scruffy nuts, apples, peanut butter and sunflower seeds (“He didn’t like the avocado so much,” she noted). Scruffy spends his days hoarding food in two boxes she put on the deck (which he was supposed to live in instead of the barbecue, she noted), chasing birds away from the bird feeder and excavating tunnels in the snow, occasionally popping his head up out of different holes whack-a-mole style.
“It is pretty funny to watch him,” Doucette said.
Nutty neighbors
Squirrels of North America lists seven species of squirrel in the Edmonton region. Of these, just two – the red squirrel and the northern flying squirrel – are active outdoors at this time of year.
Also known as the chickaree or pine squirrel, the red squirrel is unmistakable with its red tail, cinnamon back, white eye rings and creamy underside, as well as its habit of chattering at you while flicking its tail and stomping its feet in irritation.
The North American red squirrel is an entirely different animal from the British red squirrel, which has ear tufts and a bigger tail, said University of Alberta biologist Stan Boutin, who has studied red squirrels for many years in the Yukon.
“Our red squirrels are more interesting,” he said, as they’re far more territorial.
Red squirrels spend most of their time gathering food, especially spruce cones, to store in a big pile called a midden, Boutin said. They’re so good at grabbing cones that some trees have evolved to produce huge numbers of cones in “mast” years so that at least some survive the squirrels’ predation.
Boutin said red squirrels are highly competitive and territorial except during the February-April mating season, when many males will gather on the territory of one female on the one day she’s in heat. The female will then run around mating with up to 10 males in a day before chasing them off the next morning, giving birth to her pups about 35 days later.
You’re unlikely to see a northern flying squirrel without a flashlight as they’re nocturnal, Boutin said. These big-eyed, smokey grey creatures have flaps of skin between their limbs that let them glide up to 49 m – Boutin said he has heard them fly across the street to land on his roof. You’re most likely to find these squirrels around very tall, very old forests, and might see them snacking on mushrooms.
While squirrels can make a mess if they get in your house or feeder, Boutin said they are an important food source for lynxes, owls and other predators, and provide excellent insights into animal behaviour and the effects of climate change.
Doucette said squirrels are more personable than other forms of wildlife and very entertaining.
“They’re quite the character.”
