Squirrel News

The Prevost's Squirrel at Ardastra Gardens (Nassau, Bahamas)

Just came back from a trip to the Bahamas and ran across a wonderful species of squirrels at the Ardastra Gardens, Zoo & Conservation Center in Nassau.   The squirrel was black, white and red and is called the Prevost's Squirrel.  The Prevost's squirrel is native to Southeast Asia.  Also, here is an education lesson from the Ardastra Gardens website.

• Tree squirrels - have long, bushy tails, sharp claws and large ears. Some have well-developed ear tufts.
• Flying squirrels - have a furred membrane (patagiuim) extending between the wrist and ankle that allows them to glide between trees.
• Ground squirrels - are generally more robust than tree squirrels and often have short, sturdy forelimbs that are used for digging. Their tails, while fully furred, generally are not as bushy as those of tree squirrels. Like many other rodents, all squirrels have five functional toes on the hindfeet and four on the forefeet, with a well-developed claw on each digit.

By the way, if you ever take a Disney Cruise and have a stopver in Nassau, I highly recommend the Ardastra Garden and City Tour since it stops at Ardastra Gardens.

White albino squirrels of Arkansas City, Kansas

Residents of Arkansas City, Kansas, have fallen in love with an albino (white) squirrel living in the city.  Apparently, this is the only such albino squirrel in the city because they are having a naming contest for the squirrel.  Some of the current name suggestions include Arky, Blizzard, Snow White, Casper, Snowball, Powder Puff, Snowflake, Albi, Lucky and Angel.  Here are some Arkansas City albino (white) squirrel pictures.

Per the Wikipedia page for squirrels, white Squirrels can be found in Kansas City, Kansas, Olney, Illinois, Brevard, North Carolina, Marionville, Missouri, and Oberlin, Ohio. There have been sightings in Effingham, Illinois, Lemont, Illinois, Laurel, Maryland, Washington, DC and Burnsville, MN.   

Also from Wikipedia, Albino squirrels are thought by some to be a source of good luck. Olney, Illinois, is home of the world's largest known albino-squirrel colony. The Albino Squirrel Preservation Society was founded in 2001 at the University of North Texas to celebrate the proliferation of white and albino squirrels on campus. There are eight college chapters of the ASPS across the United States, Canada, and England.

He is a live link to the Albino Squirrel Preservation Society.  The first time I heard of squirrels was the white albino squirrels of North Carolina.  In fact, I want to credit Christy Hargrove of the University of North Carolina at Asheville for introducing me to white albino squirrels through her Squirrels R Us website.

Georgia cat nurses two orphaned baby squirrels

MSN provides us with an interesting story this weekend about a momma cat with multiple kittens that is also nursing two orphaned baby squirrels.  See Momma Cat Nurses Squirrels.  For related information, check out Squirrel University's Proper Care of an Orphaned Squirrel.

"Attack squirrel" caught in Orlando

As we've written in Intro to Squirrels 102:  Proper Care of an Orphaned Squirrel, it's best that humans do not directly interact with squirrels.  We recommend enjoying squirrel watching from the distance.

But on some occasions, squirrels are the ones that inst igate interactions with humans.  There is an August 2006 case of an overly aggressive squirrel that was attacking people in Central Park in the Orlando are near Rollins College in the town of Winter Park.  The following was written in the 8/11/06 Orlando Sentinel:

At least seven people were attacked by an abnormally aggressive squirrel in Central Park from Aug. 1 to Aug. 4. The squirrel attacked people on four consecutive days, persisting despite being smacked with a purse and shoes, pepper-sprayed by police, stomped and flung.

The squirrel's victims had expressed frustration that it was not captured sooner, especially after hearing that 19-year-old Dylan Osborne had caught it Aug. 3 and held it under a bucket for more than two hours waiting for county animal services to arrive.  Osborne released it when no one came.

A short time later, it scratched Shannon Mariotti's foot while she sat on a park bench.  Mariotti, 29, had just arrived in Winter Park hours earlier to begin her job as an assistant political-science professor at Rollins College.  "I started to walk away from it, and it followed," she said. "Then I started to run away, and it ran after me."  As she ran from the park, she tried to warn Cox, but the squirrel quickly latched onto Carson, biting and scratching him. Mariotti and Carson began rabies treatment that night at a hospital emergency room.

What did this happen?  A wildlife expert postulates the squirrel became accustomed to being fed by humans.

Joe Perez of Orlando-based Advanced Wildlife Trappers speculated that the squirrel was accustomed to being fed by people and was looking for food, even if the victims had not been feeding it.  "They get very aggressive," Perez said. "They will come after you for something to eat."

Again, we recommend squirrel watching from a distance, but these people did nothing wrong.

Squirrel News blog started!

This is the first post for the Squirrel News blog, sponsored by SquirrelNet.com and Squirrel University.  This site will cover recent squirrels in the news, squirrels on the web and various other squirrel-related matters.