Tomorrow is National Squirrel Appreciation Day and if you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know I love the squirrels. I take picture all the time and I've shared those over the years as well. We buy squirrel food and have a little squirrel station for food and water about a dozen feet from the house at the base of an oak tree.
From several years ago...
In honor of Squirrel Appreciation Day, I decided to read up on our furry friends and share a few tidbits with you. So here we go...
- Yes, they are in the rodent family, but not same order as rats and mice. Their order includes chipmunks, marmots, groundhogs, and prairie dogs.
- They are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and were introduced by humans to Australia.
- Tree squirrels can descend a tree head first due to their ability to rotate their ankles 180 degrees allowing them to grip the tree bark with their back claws.
- Not only do they have excellent vision, they have a good sense of touch.
- They have whiskers on their limbs as well as on their heads. The scientific term for whiskers is actually vibrissae.
- Once past the rigors of the first year of life, squirrels can live 5-10 years.
- Squirrel tail hairs are prized for fly fishing flies due to some special quality of those particular hairs.
- They are primarily herbivores, preferring nuts, seeds, fruits, fungi, and green vegetation. They may eat insects or meat when face with prolonged or severe hunger. Early spring is the hardest time for them to find food because the nuts they buried are beginning to sprout and they won't eat them at that point...
Hope you have a great rest of your week & weekend. Talk to you later...
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