Many readers commented about squirrels being agile cute and fast. Many people enjoy watching them as when they run trough the tree branches as if it was magic. Red squirrels are agile and seem to make those impossible moves look easy.
Well, I hate to rain on your party. Squirrels may be lightening quick and agile but they do have accidents.
Scientists studying squirrels find squirrel bodies that have broken bones. So apparently squirrels fall from heights that cause broken bones. Now I know you've never seen a squirrel fall but I have. I've seen a couple of spectacular crashes.
These crashes were so great that I told my classes the squirrel story for many years.
Now I called my story The Retarded Squirrel. Yes I know retarded is not an acceptable term.
So it goes like this. I have a long fence that has a 2 x 4 for a top. In other words the top of this fence is 4 inches wide. There was a squirrel in the area that would fall off the top of the fence. If it had happened once I wouldn't have made an issue out of it. But I did notice this squirrel fall off the top of the fence quite a few times.
Now the second incident with my retarded squirrel was more interesting to watch. There were trees on each side of an alley that stuck out over the alley. The squirrel wanted to cross the alley by leaping from one tree to the other. This squirrel took a lot of time to consider the jump. It ran up and down and around the tree to find the best place to leap from one tree to the other tree on the other side. Finally, a choice was made and you could see the squirrel saying one, two, three jump! Well the squirrel did not make it to the other tree across the alley. The squirrel fell about 3 meters into some soft snow. The squirrel shook itself and looked around as if to say, "What am I doing here?" Then it picked itself up and waded through the snow to a tree.
This was a story the kids loved and many years later I was asked if I still had my squirrel.
A sad note on my last post. This afternoon I found a squirrel that had been run over on the road. So one less competitor in this world.
Poor squirrel but such is the animal kingdom.
ReplyDeleteIt's a hard world out there for the critters. I guess that's why the birth rates tend to be high for some animals. Those are interesting stories about the less agile squirrel, though. My brother and sister-in-law had a cat once who couldn't jump up on the furniture. He always missed. But usually in the natural world there are fatal consequences for those who have disabilities.
ReplyDeleteI had a tree outside my porch that a squirrel would use to jump from the porch into the tree. One day when I had pruned it and the squirrel didn't notice, he went as usual to his spot and leapt. Only to find the ground instead of the tree. He didn't seem hurt, though, just puzzled. :-)
ReplyDeleteHello, your red squirrels are prettier than my plain gray squirrels. Cute story. They are amazing to watch! Have a happy day!
ReplyDelete"The Tale of Red The Retarded Squirrel" would make a great children's story...
ReplyDelete"Once upon a time there was a squirrel called Red. He had a very bushy tail, loved to hide his nuts and was retarded. The other squirrels used to tease him, shouting "Watch out! Here comes Red!"
I am not sure where the story will go from there but Red will get up to plenty of mischief.
They are busy critters, a major part of the ecosystem. I think the chipmunks are dumb as bricks. The red squirrels are very bold here.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, we don't use that term anymore!
It sometimes happens that one of them gets hit by a car.
ReplyDeleteWe used to feed the squirrels in Maryland. I wouldn't want to see one fall.
ReplyDeleteI never seen a red squirrel before, mostly gray but once when I was in Niagara Falls, I did see some black squirrels. I wouldn't want to see one fall either. I guess I never expected them to fall but accidents do happen even to squirrels.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen a squirrel fall but it is indeed very possible. This was a fun story!
ReplyDeleteWe've seen quite a few squirrel tumbles, especially the young ones. And one drowned in our children's swimming pool. Evidently it fell in and could not get a purchase on the smooth sides to get out. It was traumatic for the children! We threw the pool in the trash.
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed both your posts about the red squirrels. I like squirrels, my husband dislikes them. We have gray squirrels. I've wondered if squirrels ever fall. What scares me is seeing one cross a busy highway on a power line, way up above the traffic. I sat at a stop light once, a nervous wreck, and watched as a squirrel crossed overhead. That one made it across safely. :)
ReplyDelete