Free Republic

They are marauding gangs of troublemakers who set fire to cars, cut electrical wires and cause power outages, evading capture by scaling walls and climbing trees. But while the Queens co-op residents being terrorized by the daredevil vandals say they know exactly who their tormentors are, they insist that they’re helpless in stopping the crime wave — because the suspects are sex-happy squirrels. “It’s like Occupy Wall Street here,” lamented Bob Friedrich, president of the under-siege co-op at Glen Oaks Village. “It’s gotten worse in the past six months. We’re getting calls that they are in people’s apartments.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Friday he's "definitely undecided" on another run for the White House next year and is increasingly concerned Republicans will "Balkanize themselves" ahead of 2012. A day after the sparsely attended first debate of the GOP primary season, Huckabee said in an interview on Fox News that he had no regrets about missing the gathering and that he's still working toward a decision on 2012. "First of all, I've got to come to a place where I believe I should run, and I'm not there yet," Huckabee said. "My feeling is I'll be there by...

SOMERS —— The first call came right at the beginning of March. A homeowner was removing old ceiling tiles from the attic when a litter of baby squirrels fell out. They were about 2 weeks old — tiny and pink with only the faintest traces of gray fur and eyes that still hadn't opened. The creatures could easily have been mistaken for mice, as they often are at that age. The homeowner said the mother was nowhere to be found, so wildlife rehabilitator Chris Clark of Somers agreed to take in the babies, beginning the spring season — by the...

A squirrel's fascination with a statue of a dog has brought hours of light entertainment to a Russian suburb. The frisky rodent looked confused as to why the dog wasn't moving and cannot seem to get its head around the fact that it is an ornament and not real. The picture was taken by a photographer in the garden of his house just outside of Moscow. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353868/A-squirrels-bizarre-obsession-dog-statue.html#ixzz1D7F0nV7D

A passenger was arrested after security officials discovered he had carried snakes, birds and a squirrel in hand luggage on a long-haul flight. In a thankfully less-dramatic version of the 2006 thriller film Snakes On A Plane, fellow passengers were blissfully unaware of the man's box full of pets.

Grinch-like squirrels with hearts three sizes too small failed to steal Christmas from Braintree — but the furry little fiends did gum up the town’s tree-lighting festivities. The yuletide buzz-killers managed to chew through wires on lights strung on four of the eight trees on the town hall mall. But fear not, Braintree, said a defiant Mayor Joseph Sullivan: “We will have Christmas lights on the town hall mall, despite the squirrels’ desire to thwart Christmas lights in Braintree.”

Grey squirrels are ubiquitous in North America - scurrying across our lawns and up our trees, burying nuts and taunting our tantalised dogs.Bright-eyed and bushy tailed, squirrels are cute, furry and, apparently, very edible. The notion of stewed squirrel may not tempt everybody's taste buds, but in an age of tightening belts and financial severity, the humble abundance of the squirrel is causing some to reconsider its epicurean virtue. American hunter William Hovey Smith, a self-described outdoor enthusiast, loves a spot of squirrel stew, made of course from critters he hunts himself. "It is certainly a very American dish. We've...

Freehold Attorney Fined $2,500 for Trapping, Drowning Squirrels

Hunting rope squirrels for food could be fuelling cases of monkeypox in the Congo basinResearchers probing risk factors for human cases of monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a ‘hotspot’ of the disease, found that people living near dense forests favoured by rope squirrels are more likely to contract the virus. “Our finding... is consistent with the fact that rope squirrels are the only natural host that have been demonstrated to transmit the monkeypox virus directly to humans in Africa,” write Trevon Fuller and colleagues this month in EcoHealth. The study suggests that the scant resources available for...

This is a video of a squirrel that has to go through an obstacle course in order to get to the food. While not absolutely amazing, it is quite interesting to see how determined an animal can be to find food. Now if we can just teach this attitude to humans. They say that if you teach a man to fish you have given him a gift that will allow him to feed himself for a lifetime. However, we live in a society that would rather give them a fish and thus enslave them for a lifetime. Maybe a...

Have you seen any fat squirrels lately? Probably not – most of them live in the trees around my place, where they’ve raided the nut trees and taken all the walnuts, most of the chestnuts, a lot of the blueberries, a ton of acorns and even tried out the corn. I know that when old man winter comes, they’ll be at the bird feeder. So how do you control wildlife in your garden? Your first job is to understand how wild animals eat and what they like to eat. For example, squirrels love nuts, but hate hot peppers; thus, spraying...

I was walking through the neighborhood one afternoon when, on turning a corner, I nearly tripped over a gray squirrel that was sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, eating a nut. Startled by my sudden appearance, the squirrel dashed out to the road — right in front of an oncoming car. Before I had time to scream, the squirrel had gotten caught in the car’s front hubcap, had spun around once like a cartoon character in a clothes dryer, and was spat back off. When the car drove away, the squirrel picked itself up, wobbled for a moment or...

The cost of this bridge would have been $5000 a squirrel. It would have saved an estimated 5 squirrels a year from becoming roadkill. Amortized over a ten year period, the cost per 'squirrel death saved' would have been $25,000 per squirrel. The cancellation came after news reports brought the project to the public's attention. Taxpayers have had a very small part of their faith in government sanity restored. So far, the squirrels have failed to comment. ABC News reported: Arizona abruptly canceled plans today to spend $1.25 million to build bridges for a colony of 250 squirrels so they...

Arizona abruptly canceled plans today to spend $1.25 million to build bridges for a colony of 250 squirrels so they would not have to cross a rural road and could avoid becoming road kill. John Halikowski, director of Arizona's Department of Transportation, halted the bridge project that was being paid for with federal highway funds. "ADOT will not spend funds simply because they are available," he said in a statement. "Protection of the red squirrel may be an appropriate effort," Halikowski said, "but not with transportation funding." The money was being spent, officials said, because cars kill about five of...

Arizona is spending $1.25 million to build bridges for 250 rare red squirrels so they won't get hit by cars crossing the rural road. The expenditure is expected to save the lives of five squirrels a year.

Their mean and moody expressions suggest: Go on, punk, make my day. And when any rival is foolish enough to stray on to their territory, the result is terrifying. In scenes more like a violent Quentin Tarantino movie than a wildlife shoot, one Cape ground squirrel delivers a ferocious attack on an interloper. Enlarge   Reservoir squirrels: The fur flies as the battle rages Enlarge  Ka-pow: The fighters hit the ground With its opponent on the floor, it does not hesitate to put the furry boot in as it protects its particular part of a camp site in Etosha, Namibia....

London, UK (BANG) - Britain's Prince Charles wants grey squirrels exterminated. The future king - a keen environmentalist - has claimed it is essential to eliminate the animal, introduced from North America in the 19th century, because of the threat they pose to native red squirrels. In a letter to the Country Land and Business Association, Charles - patron of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust said: "In order to be able to save the red squirrels and ensure their future in this country, it is absolutely crucial to eliminate the greys which, as you know, are an alien species to...

While driving into work recently, I had a near encounter with a squirrel. I'm sure most of you have had one too. What generally seems to happen is this. The squirrel goes to the edge of the road, and looks around. Then, just when your car gets within range, the squirrel darts in front of you, seemingly trying to see how close it can get to being squished, without actually dying. As an added bonus, sometimes, just as you break, or swerve the other way, it will change course. If you are really lucky, sometimes the critter will zigzag three...

A remote part of Wales is home to the last remaining colony of rare red squirrels, conservationists have discovered. Since the introduction of the American grey squirrel in the 19th century, numbers of reds have declined after their colonies were forced to retreat. But new evidence suggests that the red squirrels of the Tywi Valley in the Cambrian Mountains of Mid Wales are among the purest left in Britain, thanks to a unique genetic code. Dr Lizzie Wilberforce of The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales said: 'Visually they are no different to any other red squirrels. 'But their...

SPOKANE - Spokane is having a problem with too many ground squirrels at the Finch Arboretum So the Parks and Recreation department is going to use a special machine to detonate some of the 100 to 150 rodents that are tearing up the grounds. The machine is called the Rodenator Pro. It pumps propane and oxygen into the tunnels of squirrels, then sends an electric spark that causes an explosion. The shock waves kill the squirrels and collapse their tunnels. The parks department says the Rodenator is a humane way to kill the squirrels. But it warns area residents that...