These little rascals may raid your bird feeders, entertain with acrobatics in your yard, or simply visit your campsite for a handout. Whatever your love or hate relationship is with these little mammals, they certainly deserve some credit for adaptation in our highly modified landscapes.
I’ve personally witnessed quite a few “leaps of faith” in our yard. Even though we have a pair of jingle bells on our back sliding door to give ample ‘critter warning’ before our dogs dart out the door to secure the perimeter, there are occasionally a few stragglers. They make it to the nearest tree trunk, and out of reach – but always seem to insist on trying to reach the next tree despite their already secured position of safety.
As noted parkour experts, they have an amazing ability to recover from a leap a bit beyond their skill. It doesn’t have to be graceful, it doesn’t have to be perfect, just enough to know what not to do the next time (if there is a next time). Because of this learning ability, they’ve attracted the attention of scientists studying animal biomechanics and problem-solving skills. Anyone with a backyard bird feeder has certainly witnessed this often highly-entertaining process of trial and error.
Entertainment aside, their abilities seem to have the attention of cognitive researchers at the University of California Berkley and, wait for it, the Army Research Office of the US Military. This research may someday be applied to creating robots with squirrel-like problem solving and acrobatic abilities.
Does anyone besides me think an apocalyptic robot squirrel movie is long overdue?
“Don’t worry so much about a wrong leap, as long as you can recover like a squirrel, you’ll be fine.”
~ Dr. David Hu, Georgia Tech ( ref; NYT article Aug 2021)
Featured Image at top: American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), my yard
I’m doing my best to appreciate the squirrels in my yard. I appreciate them more when I see the hawks chase them! lol – I do what I can to keep them out of the feeders, but, as you know, it’s a losing battle. Recently, I’ve switched to bribery! I’ve put out corn and peanuts for them, but they still have a test for Black Oil Sunflower seeds. So, I find myself, once again, on the losing side of the battle. Oh well.
I used to see chipmunks all of the time, in Ohio. To the best of my recollection, I’ve only seen one since I’ve been in North Carolina, 18 years. I suppose they are here, but closer to the mountains, the cooler areas. I do enjoy seeing them and their little stuffed cheeks, as in your photo.
You do realize that the name of the area I live in is called Squirrel Hill!? I love it here, and we do have our fair share of the critters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirrel_Hill_(Pittsburgh)
Well, I hope you had a heck of a party on Squirrel Day!
Here in PA we get twice the fun! We party on Squirrel Day and Groundhog Day. We are quite the party state!
In the long run, the “Battle of the Squirrel” is unwinnable, so these days, I most often sit back and enjoy their cunning and charming beauty. Beautiful photos, Mark. ?
Shhh – don’t let that get out to the anti-squirrel device market. ?
The chipmunk also has a mouth full. Reminds me a bit of some politicians. ?
I have a squirrels nest nearby so every spring and early summer I get to enjoy theanticss of sibling rivalry, tiney squeals when one bites harder than expected they can make endless circles chasing one another around a tree trunk. When they are not around I toss out a handful of unsalted peanuts in the shells then later watch them find them and then bury them for later. I actually want to have them around, but then again I don’t have any bird feeders in my yard. I’ve watched videos of squirrels repeatedly trying to shinny up a greased pole, to bird feeder, only slide down then repeat. It is entertaining. I must say they are quite intelligent. I do like this whole series of images. Thank you!
Haha, Monte, I don’t think they have a mouth full of the same thing.
The squirrels in our yard get shelled peanuts from time to time, but also have to battle the Blue Jays for them. I should really spend more time photographing them. I’ve never been lucky enough to catch them with their acrobatics.
What fun, Mark, I love the parkour idea! Your chipmunk has a tear in its ear – I’ve seen that many times and I bet you have as well. I can’t quite figure out what it is chipmunks want – sorry to hear yours have gone missing. We only see them occasionally, in certain parts of certain parks. That’s a nice photo with the low angle. Your red squirrel is similar to our Douglas squirrel. My father battled Gray squirrels with various ingenious bird feeder additions – that was always good for a laugh. Now that we live where Douglas squirrels are, we disdain the grays even more than we used to. We’ve had a few Douglas squirrels take peanut halves from our hands – I know, we shouldn’t but it’s hard to resist. They’re very excitable and erratic, nothing at all like the more placid grays. The research that’s going on is interesting! Thanks for an engaging post.
That tear certainly has a story I’ll never know. Skirmish with a competitor, predator, mate? Reds have a reputation for being “mean” around here, not sure it is an accurate depiction though. I didn’t go looking for it, but I just thought of how funny it would be to see a small camera strapped to a squirrel’s back.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your father’s and your squirrel stories!
Squirrels are nothing if not persistent. We have a bird feeder that is pretty squirrel resistant, but it doesn’t stop them from trying! Kathy marvels at their diligence, but I tell her they have nothing else to do, and once they see a potential meal it takes a lot for them to give up and move on! They are quite fun to watch, however!
I ended up putting a heating duct pipe around the pole of one feeder because they were destroying feeder after feeder, or raccoons would steal the entire feeder off the hook. It doesn’t look pretty but it seems to work as they can’t grab anything and is a bit too far to jump on for most. But many have tried.
Dr. Hu’s quote reminds me of sitting around a campsite just chatting when all of a sudden we hear a “SPLAT!” like a wet rag hitting linoleum. I look down to my right and there’s a squirrel lying spread-eagle in the dirt–apparently having fallen from a surrounding tree. He got up, a bit woozy, and within 10 seconds he was off to his next adventure.
Haha. They seem to be able to handle some pretty serious falls. I’ve seen some pretty big splats in my yard.