Squirrels
Created | Updated Mar 20, 2005
Squirrels are adorable little critters that are fun to watch in the wild, and can make wonderful pets! They are found almost everywhere in the world and in several different climates.
Squirrels are regarded with a very wide variety of feelings. Many people hate squirrels and many people love squirrels. Some people keep squirrels as pets and some people hunt squirrels for sport. I am going to attmept to cover many aspects of squirrels, and when you are done reading this you will know much that there is to know about squirrels.
Squirrels in General
Squirrels are small rodents. Their body length usually ranges from 6-12 inches and their tail length usually ranges from 4-10 inches. Squirrels also come in various weights. Red and Flying squirrels weight is usually between 4 to 8 ounces, while the Grey Squirrel usually weighs between 12 and 28 ounces.
Squirrels can usually live up to 10 years in optimum conditions, though most young squirrels don't make it to adulthood because of predators.
Different Kinds of Squirrels
There are many different kinds of squirrels that live in many different areas. There are about 300 varieties of squirrels around the world. In North America there are ten. Examples are the red/brown squirrels that live in evergreen trees and eat seeds of pinecones and the gray squirrel which lives in woods of oaks, ashes, and beeches and mainly eats beech nuts and acorns.
Some people may have you believe that squirrels from different countries behave differently, as in American squirrels act differently than English squirrels. This is generally a lie, squirrels all feel a strong sense of "squirrelhood"1 and all act generally squirrely.
Squirrel Lifestyle
Squirrels are mostly solitary animals. They live in nests and they value their own space and would not be happy if forced to share a small amount of room (as in a cage) with another squirrel.
Squirrels have a number of natural enemies. These include various creatures such as red-tailed hawks, cats, wildcats, foxes, squirrel haters, owls, and raccoons. To combat these predators, and others, squirrels have trees.
Squirrels see trees as big things, but find them protective. If you were to sneak up on a squirrel and yell "BOO!", the squirrel would most likely make a mad dash for the nearest tree and scurry up the side. Squirrels have sharp claws and strong arms and legs, which enable squirrels to scurry up trees like this, or just cling to the side and just hang out for a while. Squirrels thuroughly enjoy trees.
Squirrels also like to cross the road, but squirrels don't like cars, so squirrels try to get the cars to stop doing what cars do, moving, by running across the road just in front of a car. Squirrels find it very satisfying when the cars stop, but they deffinitely do not like it when the cars do not stop.2
Love of Squirrels
Some people love squirrels, these people are commonly called Squirrel Lovers. Squirrel lovers find squirrels cute and adorable and usually try to make a point about how soft and fluffy their tails are.
Squirrel lovers sometimes participate in various squirrel related activities such as squirrel tag3 or squirrel watching.
Squirrel lovers are usually happy people and tend to be "Insert furry animal name here" lovers.
Hatred of Squirrel
Some people hate squirrels, they are commonly refered to as Squirrel Haters. They find it fun to chase squirrels or throw rocks and sticks at them.
Squirrel haters also hunt squirrels. Although squirrel hunting is not limited to squirrel haters, it is something not normally practiced by squirrel lovers.
There have been some reports of squirrels hating squirrel haters, one of which can be read here.
Squirrel haters, as the name implies, are an almost perfect contrast of Squirrel Lovers.
Living with Squirrels
If you would ask a few people on the street what they thought was the best way to get along living with squirrels, you would get a great number of different answers4.
Squirrel lovers would tell you to enbrace the squirrels and love them. Squirrel haters would tell you to torment, kill, and generally hate squirrels.
But some people would tell you to simply ignore the squirrels, stopping when they run in front of your car, and letting them go about their business in the park.
This is probably the best advice when it comes to getting along with squirrels, and it is probably the most widely practiced method of getting along with squirrels.
Have a squirrely day!
1"Squirrelhood" is refered to by many as "instinct".2An exception to this is made for suicidal squirrels3Squirrel haters also play a form of squirrel tag, though they usually do it to torment the squirrels rather than to play with them4Along with many accusations of being crazy or "nuts" (pun intended)
