Posted on 10/24/2003 2:18:02 PM PDT by Shermy
PHILADELPHIA - (KRT) - For squirrels, October may be the cruelest month.
One moment they are bushy-tailed bundles of activity; the next, they are roadkill, victims of their own foraging frenzy and youthful exuberance.
In some leafy neighborhoods, dead squirrels lie two or three to a block. The carnage, biologists say, is as much a harbinger of autumn as the falling leaves. And this October may be crueler than usual. An early acorn fall may have heightened the squirrels' voracious activity, some experts say.
Squirrels born in late summer are now making their first independent forays into the world. Like human teenagers, squirrels are impelled to travel far from the nests where they were born as soon as they can get away. It's nature's way of ensuring that young squirrels don't compete with parents and siblings for the same acorn supply.
"Right now they're out looking for new places to live and finding sources of food to settle down for the rest of their lives," said Vagn Flyger, 81, who has studied squirrel behavior for decades and is emeritus professor of wildlife biology at the University of Maryland.
But as they try to locate new food sources and new hiding places from predators, "they make mistakes," he said. The mistakes can be fatal.
A squirrel can live for more than a decade if it's lucky, but between cars and such predators as red-tail hawks, many don't last a year. It takes them about a fifth of that - 10 to 14 weeks - to learn "squirrel wisdom," said Trish O'Connell, licensed wildlife rehabilitator and director of the Schuylkill Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic in Roxborough, Pa.
"They may not be as leery of cars as adults," O'Connell said. "The younger ones may not have caught on to crossing (streets) over the phone wires."
The eastern gray squirrel, so familiar in the urban and suburban landscape, is clever and human-savvy, biologists say. To deter poachers, the creatures dig numerous decoy holes as they bury acorns. Blessed with keen eyesight and a wide field of vision, they would know to look both ways before crossing the road - or so you would think.
The heavy toll on the squirrel population is fairly typical for this time of year, experts say, although it may have been aggravated by recent high winds that brought down acorns earlier than usual.
The squirrels' feeding and hoarding frenzy may have been heightened by acorns' accessibility, said one biologist. Or it could be the acorns that fell early were immature and therefore inedible, forcing squirrels to forage farther afield, said another.
Another factor is what squirrel researchers term "the fall shuffle," said Michael A. Steele, an evolutionary biologist who heads the biology department at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and is coauthor of "North American Tree Squirrels," published by the Smithsonian Institution.
The quality of "mast" - acorn and other seed and nut crops that small wildlife depend on - is not uniform. "When squirrels recognize by mid-August that the crops are not good in one area, they move to another," Steele said.
Cheryl Trewella, information and education supervisor for the Pennsylvania Game Commission's southeast region, said her reports indicated that mast in the Philadelphia region this season "looks good."
"Right now, because of the mast crop that is dropping, squirrels are back and forth across roads, particularly in cities, so they are more inclined to get hit," Trewella said.
"The wind (that followed Hurricane Isabel) also knocked down a lot of acorns and nuts, and so they are very active," she said.
Couple that with the change of season, and it's just a risky time of year for critters such as squirrels, raccoons and opossums, said Jerry Czech, wildlife-conservation officer for Philadelphia County.
"The roadkill (count) rises a lot this time of year because times are changing," he said. "The morning rush hour and the evening rush hour are coinciding with dawn and dusk.
"In the morning, a lot of nocturnal animals are going back to the woods and a lot of diurnal animals are coming out. These are also times of high (automobile) traffic. Usually with a squirrel, you might not even know you hit it," Czech said.
The woods are not much safer for squirrels these days. Pennsylvania's squirrel-hunting season opened on Saturday. New Jersey's opened Sept. 27.
Last year, 200,000 Pennsylvania hunters bagged a million squirrels.
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Most squirrels around here are no bigger fullgrown than chipmunks, and most are barely grown. They aren't cute at any age. Voles, OTOH, are decidedly cute little round furballs when babies.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
They have incredible focus. They also don't sit still long, so you have to get your shot off in about 2 seconds or risk wasting an afternon and that is an excellent training for shooting skills.
It's payback time.
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