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| • Sneaky Squirrels Pretend to Bury Nuts! (12/4/04) | |
| Washington’s Seattle Times reports on the sometimes nutty behavior of squirrels: “Sylvia Halkin, a professor of biology at Central Connecticut State University, is studying deceptive behavior in squirrels, following up on a student's observation that squirrels sometimes buried an acorn then moved nearby and pretended to bury another acorn, behavior that might confuse another animal attempting to find the cache. She and some of her students conducted an experiment in which they gave squirrels peanuts and then watched them bury them. Then the students dug up the peanuts. Subsequently, they found that when they gave the squirrels peanuts, the squirrels would bury a nut, then pretend to bury other nuts nearby. Or the squirrels would dig many holes before burying a single nut in one of them. Or they might try to bury the nut under a bush where the researchers could not see it. Or the squirrel would climb a tree and put the nut in a nest. ‘It seems we could induce this kind of behavior by digging up the nuts,’ Halkin said.” The article goes on to say, “‘Deceptive behavior has been documented in a number of species of animals,’ Halkin said. But overall ‘it is rare. It gives us a glimpse into the kinds of mental processes that may be going on in their heads.’” That explains why we've had so much trouble hiring squirrel help for our shipping and receiving operations. You ask them to send out one order, they pack five boxes, and then you can't tell which one the order is in! See the whole story in the Seattle Times! | |
| • Walnut Otter? (7/22/04) | |
| In our last Squirrel News item we discussed how to talk to squirrels. Now we bring you news of even greater import (if you can believe that’s possible) - how to talk about squirrels in 100 different languages! Friend-of-squirrels and language enthusiast Andrew Watts put together a web page listing the words for squirrel in more than 100 languages along with some possible roots of the terms. Highlights include the Basque word “urtxintxa” which comes from roots meaning “walnut otter” and words with feline roots like “wood cat”, “oak kitten” and the Bengali “kAtHbIraI” which comes from “cat in a tree.” Be the life of the party, click here to see the entire list! | |
| • How to talk to Squirrels. (5/26/04) | |
| Learn how to speak squirrel in “Animal Talk,” a new book by Tim Friend, science reporter for the USA Today newspaper. An excerpt in USA Today from Friend’s book tell us, “Vocalizing like a squirrel requires smacking the tongue against the roof of the mouth in a manner similar to the way a horse would be coaxed to trot, or when a person wants to convey tsk-tsk. Almost immediately the squirrel came from around the tree and stared at me. I was startled but I made a few more of the sounds. The squirrel raised its bushy tail, pointed its ears toward me and began to approach, looking straight at me with genuine curiosity...The squirrel appeared to sniff. Its dark eyes were alert as it continued to gaze at me, now less than 10 feet away. Then, having satisfied its curiosity and certain that I had nothing more of interest to offer, the squirrel scampered off...The experiment has been repeated many times since with other squirrels on the apartment grounds.” Give it a try yourself - learning new languages is a great way to expand your horizons! Click here to see the entire excerpt on USA Today’s web site. | |
| • Black Squirrel Boosterism (4/4/04) | |
| That arbiter of quality for American regional curiosities, roadsideamerica.com, gave us the scoop in our last Squirrel News™ installment on localities touting their populations of white squirrels. According to roadsideamerica.com, many towns are proud of their black squirrels, too. In fact, Marysville, KS, (which bills itself as “Home of the Black Squirrels”) has gone so far as to not only name the black squirrel its official mascot and hold an annual Black Squirrel Celebration, but in 1987, they made the “Black Squirrel Song” the official anthem of Marysville. It goes like this: Lives in the city park, runs all over town. The coal black squirrel will be our pride and joy Many more years to come! That is a thing of beauty! See the full story, including some great pictures and a really nutty black squirrel song in MP3 format from London, Ontario, at http://www.roadsideamerica.com/set/squirrelsblack.html | |
| • Squirrel Enthusiasts Duke it Out (3/21/04) | |
| According to roadsideamerica.com, “Not one, but five towns use albino squirrels as their claims to fame, and none is particularly happy about the others.” Olney, Illinois; Marionville, Missouri; Kenton, Tennessee; and Exeter, Ontario all call their towns, “Home of the White Squirrels” (Brevard, North Carolina (as reported in previous Squirrel News™ items) is the fifth town mentioned on the web site, but they don't appear to make the “Home of...” claim.) What the editorial staff here at Squirrel Tracks would like to know is, how do these squirrels travel to and from all their various homes? Do they all charter a plane? Do they “Go Greyhound?” And why do they have so many homes? Do they summer up north and winter down south? Are they really rich? Are they migrant workers? Boy, we are confused. Imagine a poor white squirrel coming home from work and saying, “Hi, honey! I’m home!” and no one answers. The poor guy’s in Missouri and the family’s over in Tennessee. What confusion! The article has some great pictures and quotes. See the full story at http://www.roadsideamerica.com/set/squirrels.html | |
| • Prototype for Red Squirrels?! (2/27/04) | |
| Magnus Edensvard, a Swedish “Interaction Designer”, posits the question, “How can vulnerable animal species be empowered through technology?” He was concerned with the physical advantage of size that grey squirrels have over their smaller red squirrel cousins and how that might be contributing to the decline of red squirrel populations. To explore possible answers to this question he did what any sensible person would do: he made a radio-controlled car platform upon which he mounted a stuffed red squirrel and he drove it around in a park until all the grey squirrels were so perplexed that they’re now afraid to dart out in front of cars for fear that a vigilante red squirrel may be behind the wheel. He continues, “The Prototype for Red Squirrels was conceived as a model. It looked at inequalities within two conflicting communities whose relationship is marked by ongoing cycles of aggression. As a methodology, it may be considered in context of disputes between communities where elements of wonder and curiosity has been rendered absent from social relationships.” You can consider those contexts yourself and see pictures and movies documenting Edensvard’s experiments at his Prototype for Red Squirrels web page. | |
| • Thomas & Friends™ are here! (2/16/04) | |
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| See your favorite Thomas & Friends™ engines and train cars, now in the Locomotives and Train Cars section of our online store! You’ll find more than two dozen friends, including Thomas, Annie and Clarabel, James, Gordon, Henry, Duck, Percy, Skarloey, Edward, and even a couple of newer friends like Lady and Emily! Many of our customers and friends have told us that they bought a Thomas the Tank Engine (or one of his friends) to go with their Maxim track and accessories, and that they - and their kids - are happy as can be with the combination. It’s the best of both worlds - high quality track and accessories for less and the rich world of characters of Thomas and his friends! It’s wonderful how much a familiar face can spark a child’s imagination. Because we really like the combination of Maxim® track and accessories and Thomas & Friends™ train cars, we do not plan to offer Thomas track and accessories. Our mission is to offer a great selection of wooden trains at prices any parent can appreciate. We feel that adding the unique Thomas & Friends train car characters to our line will add a new, fun dimension to creative play with trains for our customers and their kids. Where’s the squirrel element in this news story? We’re lobbying for Learning Curve to give Thomas a new friend, “Squirrely the Steam Shovel”. So far they haven’t written back to us. :?) | |
| • Squirrel Tracks Turns One! (2/2/04) | |
| February 1st marks Squirrel Tracks’ one-year anniversary! Yes, we’re only one year old, but already we can walk and talk and offer great trains for great prices. Not many one-year-olds can do that! We heartily thank all our customers and friends. Your positive responses to our site have made our first year a smashing success! And while Squirrel Tracks is growing in leaps and bounds, our mission is clear: To be the first choice for top-quality wooden trains, information, and service at prices that any parent can appreciate. Every phone call, email, or order is handled with great care by us, the owners. And as we grow we will not lose sight of the fact that that kind of commitment is what sets us apart and makes for a more enjoyable experience for our customers and friends. We are big enough to serve you, but small enough to really appreciate you. Thank you! -Helena and Desmond (“Ma and Pa Squirrel”) | |
| • red squirrel is known to scold intruders... (1/20/04) | |
The web is full of many wonderful things and many nutty things, too. Some talented squirrels (or maybe humans?) in Australia came up with “Googlism”. According to their site, “Googlism was created as a fun tool to see what [the popular Internet search engine] Google ‘thinks’ of certain topics and people.” By sifting through the text of hundreds of web sites that Google has matched to your search query, Googlism grabs sentence fragments found around your search term and presents them to you as a series of statements about your query. Out-of-context of their respective web sites, the results range from useful to self-evident to contradictory to nonsensical to funny! A search for “grey squirrel” and “red squirrel” yields the following:
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| • Intergalactic Representatives of Humanity? (1/3/04) | |
| A recent issue of Wired magazine brings us news of heroic pioneers of interplanetary space travel. Yes, Arctic ground squirrels! “With the ability to survive body temperatures of 3 below Celsius, the Arctic ground squirrel is indeed very cool. But their hibernating talents may also hold the key to extended space travel. With the squirrel as an intergalactic representative of humanity, intelligent life will surely be discovered . . . somewhere.” And that’s just from Utne Reader magazine’s synopsis! Read the whole story from Wired here. | |
| • Samaritan Squirrels Sub for Sick Sleigh-pullers (12/22/03) | |
| By SAMANTHA SQUIRREL NORTH POLE, Dec. 22 — Mr. Kris Kringle’s annual Christmas flight carrying gifts to all the good boys and girls of the world was nearly cancelled this week due to a severe influenza outbreak that put his entire team of flying reindeer in the hospital. But the N.P.L.C. (North Pole Logistical Command) announced today in a hastily-arranged news conference that flying squirrels from the Kiwanis Club of Nutley, New Jersey have volunteered to donate their time to fill-in for the reindeer struck ill by the flu. For Kringle, a long-time advocate for children, working with the Kiwanis squirrels is a natural fit. “I’m so happy to be working with these young fellows. It is so nice of them to help us continue our mission to bring joy to all the children.” The squirrels, too, are excited about the task. Spokes-squirrel Nathaniel “Nuts” Nutkin said, “As a kid, I remember hearing about Dasher and Dancer and Donner and Blitzen, but I always recalled the most famous reindeer of all. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was my hero growing up. As a teenager I used to put a holly berry on the end of my nose and stick my tail up over my head like antlers, I had Rudolph posters on my wall, the whole deal. So it’s the culmination of a lifelong dream to have met Rudolph and to be helping him and Mr. Kringle out by pulling the sleigh on Christmas Eve.” Fortunately for Mr. Kringle and his team, Rudolph’s famous red nose won’t be needed this year even in the worst of weather. Advances in G.P.S. (Global Positioning Satellite) technology now allow Kringle’s custom sleigh to fly in zero-visibility conditions. So how are the squirrels faring in the bitter cold of the North Pole? “Mr. Kringle’s elves loaned us some down jackets and Mrs. K. makes some great hot chocolate. We’re so busy practicing roof landings we don’t even notice the cold!” says Mr. Nutkin. -Ma and Pa Squirrel | |
| • Absentminded Squirrels Help Trees Grow (12/1/03) | |
| Pa Squirrel’s brother, Brother Squirrel, tipped us off to this excellent news item: Sometimes forgetting where you put something is a good thing. In an article on their web site, MSNBC gives another reason to hug your local absentminded gray squirrel. “...The ubiquitous gray squirrel buries walnuts, acorns and other nuts across the landscape in a pattern called ‘scatter hoarding,’ a Purdue University scientist said. Some nuts are forgotten and have a chance to germinate and sprout into black walnut, oak and hickory trees needed to regenerate steadily retreating hardwood forests. The red squirrel, which invaded the U.S. Midwest from higher altitudes within the past century, usually piles nuts in a few above-ground caches, where the seeds dry out or are eaten.” That last sentence about red squirrels invading from higher altitudes sounds scary! We hope they meant higher latitudes. Red squirrels dive-bombing from higher altitudes makes quite a mental picture! | |
| • Martha Stewart is a squirrel (11/19/03) | |
| We are virtually positive that style-maven Martha Stewart is a squirrel. The first clue is that she was raised in Nutley, New Jersey. What squirrel wouldn't want to live in a place called, "Nutley"? And then there's this... How else could she have come up with this brilliant series of Acorn Crafts on her www.marthastewart.com site? Martha sings the praises of the mighty acorn: “Nature is everyday magic. Take the acorn: Within this common seed resides the genetic material for a ninety-foot oak tree that will live a hundred years or more. A mature tree can drop millions of acorns in its lifetime, plenty for creatures to eat as well as for humans to collect - and to fashion into irresistible crafts with little more than twists of wire or dabs of glue.” You can learn how to make a nifty acorn-rimmed frame and classy acorn-and-twig napkin rings. Who else could think up acorn-and-twig napkin rings? She is a squirrel. We rest our case. | |
| • New Mascot for Squirrel Tracks! (11/10/03) | |
Ma and Pa Squirrel’s 4-year-old daughter thought it would be hilariously funny for Squirrel Tracks Wooden Trains’ mascot to be a hedgehog. As firm believers in the value of silliness, we hereby present to you our new hedgehog mascot as drawn and cut-out by Daughter Squirrel! | |
| • Singing the Praises of Squirrel Peanut Butter! (11/1/03) | |
| While it is virtually unknown south of the border, Canadians have been enjoying Squirrel brand peanut butter for decades. In a previous Squirrel News™ item, we asked if anyone had any further info on Squirrel Peanut Butter because it was still a bit of a mystery to us. Doug Atkinson, H.S. (Honorary Squirrel) sent us some great info on the legendary Squirrel Peanut Butter. Doug found the web site of Jon Bartlett and Rika Ruebsaat, a couple of folks who are, “singers of traditional song and amateur (for-the-love-of-it!) scholars of ballads, shanties and other folk songs. They are teachers, too, and have always been interested in how these songs are passed on - in both theory and practice.” There is a lot of nifty stuff on their site, but the golden morsel Doug uncovered on their Articles & Reviews page goes like this: Forty years ago, Squirrel peanut butter ran an advertisement on TV. It was immediately parodied and, in the schoolyards on the BC interior, children were singing: Squirrel peanut butter is worst by far Bugs and beetles to the bottom of the jar Tastes so bad you won’t buy more- Get Squirrel peanut butter on your bathroom floor (Tee hee hee! Clearly this is a parody. Jon Bartlett said they have no intention of defaming the Squirrel brand. We’re just reporting what kids sang. You can insert the peanut butter brand name of your choice!) Doug also sent us a link to an actual picture of an actual jar of Squirrel Peanut Butter. This is no dubious picture of the Loch Ness Monster, this is the real thing! (Our Canadian friends are probably chuckling at the awe which this inspires in us squirrels down in the U.S.!) You can see it for yourself (and do some grocery shopping) at E-Z Grocer’s web site! | |
| • The Nutty Narrows Bridge (10/22/03) | |
| Pa Squirrel’s sister, Sister Squirrel, sent in this excellent news item: Longview, Washington has a squirrel bridge. And not just any squirrel bridge, but perhaps the world’s most famous squirrel bridge! Looking a bit like a tiny version of New York City’s George Washington Bridge, the Nutty Narrows Bridge has safely conveyed commuting squirrels over busy vehicular traffic below for over forty years! According to the About Longview PDF file on the City of Longview’s site, “The Nutty Narrow Bridge was built in 1963 by a local builder, the late Amos Peters, to give squirrels a way to cross the busy thoroughfare without getting flattened by passing cars.” In 1983, after 20 years of service, the bridge was refurbished and rededicated with such luminaries as Disneyland’s Mickey Mouse and Chip 'n' Dale attending along with local dignitaries, 300 schoolchildren, and a lot of squirrels who were late to work. (Sorry, two links in this article no longer work and have been removed, but you can still find some information about the Nutty Narrows Bridge and the City of Longview on their site: City of Longview, Washington: Walking Tour -3/22/05) | |
| • Squirrel Peanut Butter (10/12/03) | |
| Though Ma, all our little squirrels and I are big fans of peanut butter, we never before heard of Squirrel Peanut Butter. Our Canadian visitors might laugh because it is (or was?) a pretty popular brand up there. In fact, the Canadian Western Hockey League’s “Squirrel Peanut Butter Player of the Month” designation is a coveted title given to only the squirreliest players. We have not been able to track down much information about Squirrel Peanut Butter except for a picture of an old can at Rosnick Auctions and some WHL Player of the Month news items. If anyone’s got the inside scoop on Squirrel Peanut Butter and wants to pass it on to us, we would be grateful! (Sorry, the link for the picture of Squirrel Peanut Butter in this article no longer works so it has been removed. There is a link to a picture in the 11/3/03 article above. -3/22/05) | |
| • Do not disturb the squirrel! (10/1/03) | |
| An article in North Bedfordshire, England’s Ouse News includes some hard-hitting, fact-finding reporting on the stiff competition at the Sunflower Extravaganza Tea Party: “Lorraine delivered her last speech as Sunflower Chump (Champ) adorned in a resplendent sash and a fairy wand that would have made Julian Clarey quiver with covetous thoughts. She explained that her year as Queen of the the Sunflower had taken her to many exotic places. She was a huge hit in the North Pole, Finland, and Outer Mongolia. She performed many good deeds, and has decided to devote her life to children, but let slip that the favourite thing she opened all year was a bottle of gin!...Many entrants arrived with flair and pride as they steadied their pot and stepped back with a smile of satisfaction...Some made a couple of feeble excuses as to why their sunflower was not the winner. David Cook insisted that his truly WAS bigger than Ken's, but couldn't bring it along as a squirrel had nested in the flower and he could not disturb it! Jeff Stokley claimed that 10 feet of his sunflower had been left in the ground at home!” The report of all the shenanigans can be found here. | |
| • A Squirrel with a Message (9/21/03) | |
| Squizzy the Black Squirrel: A Fabulous Tale of Friendship is the first children’s book by journalism professor Chuck Stone of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Based on a chance encounter with a lone black squirrel among dozens of grey squirrel friends, Stone’s book is, as he told the Chapel Hill News, “...a simple little story about the irrelevance of color in defining us. It’s about acceptance.” “This little kid tells Squizzy he thinks he’s cool because he’s black. The squirrel goes, ‘I’m not black. I’m a squirrel.’ He doesn’t even understand the concept of color.” Though Stone jokes that the New York Times bestseller list is safe, the initial response to his book has been quite good. You can get yourself a copy at Amazon.com! See the whole Chapel Hill News article here. (Sorry, the link to the Chapel Hill News article no longer works so it has been removed. -3/22/05) | |
| • Outwitting Squirrels (9/15/03) | |
| Outwitting Squirrels is Bill Adler, Jr.’s book of “101 Cunning Stratagems to Reduce Dramatically the Egregious Misappropriation of Seed From Your Birdfeeder by Squirrels.” We are all for well-fed squirrels, but Bill seems to have some good points. Bill’s book is a very humorous take on a serious subject. As he says on his site, “There’s a philosophical element to our effort to outwit squirrels, as well. We’re supposed to be smarter than squirrels. Right? Squirrels have brains the size of large nuts, and our brains are simply larger. So if we can’t outwit squirrels how ever can we expect to get a man or woman to Mars.” We here at Squirrel Tracks Wooden Trains feel a pang of great pride knowing that squirrels are prodding-on the intellectual advancement of the human race! | |
| • Caution: Squirrel Crossing (9/8/03) | |
| Departing from our usually staid journalistic traditions here at the New York Times of squirrel news, we bring you a joke: Q: Why did the chicken cross the road? A: To show the squirrel how to do it safely. | |
| • Italians Invading Europe? (8/29/03) | |
| Italian gray squirrels (growing tired of poor service for their kind in espresso bars?) are migrating towards other parts of Europe and displacing native red squirrels. Introduced to Turin, Italy by an Italian diplomat returning home in 1948, gray squirrels are not native to Italy or Europe. Since then, they have migrated north towards the Italian Alps and they are still on the move. If they take hold in the Alps, the continuous forest runs leading from there to the rest of Europe would allow them to conquer the continent. Listen to this week’s Wild Europe radio show on England’s BBC radio web site for an interesting review of the current situation and the future of gray and red squirrels in Italy and Europe. | |
| • The Florida Connection (8/19/03) | |
| Brevard (NC) College’s White Squirrel Research Institute web site is full of interesting squirrel news. Their page on The Florida Connection tells about a population of white squirrels in Florida with similar markings - and a similar legend of their origin - to the ones in Brevard. You may recall a past Squirrel News™ item from Virginia’s Loudoun Times-Mirror where we learned that, “...[the Brevard] colony of white squirrels can trace its roots to two lucky white squirrels from Hawaii that escaped from an over-turned carnival wagon in the 1940s and fled in a nearby pecan grove.” According to the White Squirrel Research Institute site, “The white squirrel folklore of the Sopchoppy [FL] area is remarkably similar to that associated with the Brevard population. In addition to the circus caravan wreck, it also alludes to an exotic origin (China rather than Hawaii). Although I personally put little credience into the Asian origin of either population, the similarity of the legends together with the the similar markings and proximity to Jacksonville suggests a close affinity between the Brevard and North Florida populations.” Hmmm. So what’s the real story? The mystery deepens! | |
| • England on £8 a week! (8/6/03) | |
| If you’re a squirrel, that is. That’s about what it costs to give little Persil, the albino squirrel, room and board for a week. (You may remember Persil from an earlier Squirrel News™ item.) If you’d like to keep up with Persil’s progress, the BBC has your ticket. Ted Burden, founder of the London Wildcare Centre, has written some diary entries about Persil and his brother Daz for the BBC’s web site. Click here to read. Romance, double-crossing scallywags, heartbreak and triumph - it’s like a squirrel soap opera! (Okay, we’re probably exaggerating a bit.) | |
| • The best Squirrel News Item of the Day ever! (7/21/03) | |
| The Squirrel News Item of the Day, as you may know, doesn’t come out every day. In fact, in the last couple of weeks we’ve slowed down quite a bit on it. We haven’t had time to scour the world for important breaking squirrel news because... (drum roll please)... because Ma and Pa Squirrel have been busy taking care of their two new baby squirrels! Ma and Pa Squirrel’s twin boys were born on July 9. Both are big and healthy and all the family is doing very well - including big sister squirrel (she’s 4). Remember that a significant portion of the profits from your purchases at Squirrel Tracks goes to the Put Ma and Pa Squirrel’s Kids Through College Fund. (We’re being silly, but it’s mostly true!) Please note: while we may not always have time to update the Squirrel News Item of the Day, we always have time to ship out orders - most everything still ships by the next business day! | |
| • Is this squirrel the Loch Ness monster of the mammal kingdom? (7/1/03) | |
| Virginia’s Loudoun Times-Mirror reports, “Reports of a white squirrel running carefree across Leesburg have not been exaggerated.” The first person who can provide “indisputable visual evidence” of the Leesburg white squirrel will win a $50 gift certificate for the Tuscarora Mill Restaurant in Leesburg. We learned that, “In the town of Brevard [North Carolina], a colony of white squirrels can trace its roots to two lucky white squirrels from Hawaii that escaped from an over-turned carnival wagon in the 1940s and fled in a nearby pecan grove.” What a great little “sidebar” story all in one sentence! A good Hollywood director could do something great with that. Just imagine: “Starring Gina Davis as ‘Squeaky’ and Pierce Brosnan as ‘Skippy’, White Squirrels, Black Heat is a riveting, true story of love on the lam.” But we digress... You can see the whole article here. | |
| • Persil the Albino Squirrel is 1 in 100,000! (6/13/03) | |
| Little Persil, a baby albino squirrel, was rescued after the nest she and her brother shared was accidentally dislodged from a tree. At five weeks old, she was about 5 inches long and weighed just over 2 ounces. While a squirrel’s lifetime in the wild might be 1-4 years, an albino squirrel’s lifetime might only be a few weeks because of their increased chances of being spotted and/or singled-out by predators. As the article on England’s BBC web site says, “Squirrels are highly intelligent animals...” (That’s why they shop here!) You can see the complete article and some cute pictures of Persil here. | |
| • Squirrel Fishing: A new approach to rodent performance evaluation (6/4/03) | |
| Researchers at Harvard University’s Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences realized a couple of years ago that there had been a noticeable lack of quality work on Rodent Performance Evaluation and so embarked on a diligent study of gray squirrels. Their research yielded the rodent equivalent of Einstein’s “E=mc2.” Gloy’s First Conjecture states that, “a squirrel will always give up one acorn if another one is thrown nearby.” Details of their research, along with fascinating pictures can be found here. | |
| • Annabelle and Stinky’s “Squirrel Alert!” (5/28/03) | |
| CNN reports that “The Meow Mix cat food company said Tuesday it is launching a new TV program for ‘cats and the humans they tolerate,’ littered with scenes of squirrels, cat poetry, and lots and lots of cats...Annabelle Gurwitch, former host of the TBS program ‘Dinner & A Movie,’ hosts the program with her cat, Stinky. Broadcasting from their fictional living room, they narrate segments like ‘Squirrel Alert,’ where squirrels run up and down trees to fast-paced music.” CNN’s article is here. | |
| • Medieval battles, beautiful damsels, and a secret staircase? (5/21/03) | |
| The Ford Castle in the very north of England is famous for a number of reasons: “James IV of Scotland held Ford as his headquarters before the Battle of Flodden in 1513; at the time Sir William Heron was James’s prisoner, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth, was held to be very beautiful. It has been suggested that King James, notorious for his exploits with women, chose Ford Castle as his headquarters because of the reputation of Lady Elizabeth. It is said that she was in secret communication with the English forces, and supplied them with information extracted from James that enabled the English to crush the Scots at Flodden Field. If you are lucky, you may even get to sleep in the same bedroom as King James IV, which is linked to Lady Heron’s bedroom by a secret staircase!” You might be thinking, “But Pa Squirrel, is this a squirrel-related news item?” To which I would answer, “Ah-hah!” and “Exactly!” and other silly things like you might read in a Winnie the Pooh story. And then I would simply say, “Yes, this is a genuine, official Squirrel News item because this rivetting romp through the glory days of English castles is from the description of the venue for The Third International Tree Squirrel Colloquium and The Seventh European Squirrel Workshop to be held at Ford Castle in Northumberland, England next week!” It’s true - see for yourself at the International Tree Squirrel Colloquium web site. Imagine two hundred squirrels in tweed coats, with notepads and pencils, attending lectures and workshops in an English castle for a week. | |
| • Squirrel builds star-spangled nest (5/15/03) | |
| New Hampshire’s Exeter News-Letter brings us another report of a patriotic squirrel (see Patriotic Squirrels? in our Old News section for an earlier report). “A squirrel snatched an American flag from an Exeter garden two weeks ago and redecorated his nest in patriotic chic.” Homeowner Judy LaChapelle quips, “Maybe he’s trying to get a female with [his] snazzy pad.” Click here for the full story and a picture of the snazzy squirrel bachelor pad! | |
| • A squirrel would have claimed the Nobel Prize in physics by now... (5/2/03) | |
| In a review of Peter Cashwell’s new book The Verb ‘To Bird’ in the Charlotte Observer, we find, “And every backyard birder who has ever watched a squirrel shinny up a ‘squirrel-proof’ feeder will enjoy the chapter named ‘Hang Down Your Seed And Cry.’ (‘A squirrel would have claimed the Nobel Prize in physics by now, if only it were edible.’)” The complete review is here. (Sorry, the link to the Charlotte Observer article no longer works so it has been removed. -3/22/05) | |
| • Missouri’s naturally elusive ground squirrel (4/30/03) | |
| An article in Missouri’s Conservationist Online says, “If you were north of the Missouri River, and saw a squirrel scurrying across the road that didn’t quite look like a gray squirrel, you may have spotted a rare Franklin’s ground squirrel.” The full story is here. Ground squirrels have a lot more space to play with their wooden train layouts than their tree-dwelling cousins! | |
| • Are you an IT squirrel? (4/25/03) | |
| Or an IT (information technology) shark? Fujitsu’s United Kingdom web site says that, “21% of Brits consider themselves an IT squirrel, with a tendency to hoard all the emails and reports they receive, whether they necessarily need to or not. 39% of UK employees believe they are an IT shark: dealing with reports, emails and information quickly and efficiently.” and “18% of UK workers admit they are magpies, looking only at the interesting reports and emails, and ignoring the others.” Click here for the rest of the IT animals. Sometimes our modem likes to make believe it’s an IT sloth! (Sorry, the link to the Fujitsu article no longer works so it has been removed. -3/22/05) | |
| • Our own official state mammal is... (4/19/03) | |
| Ma and Pa Squirrel must plead ignorance on not having known this before. The Official State Mammal of our home state of North Carolina is the Grey Squirrel! Click here to see for yourself at the State Library’s web site. Our Official State Beverage is Milk. Are we North Carolinians wholesome and sweet, or what? | |
| • Red squirrel first to adapt for global warming (4/15/03) | |
| Great Britain’s Daily Telegraph tells us that “Scientists have discovered that the red squirrel has become the first animal to change its genetic make-up to cope with the effects of global warming.” So does that mean red squirrels are really smart? Or do they just have pliable genes? Click here for the whole article! | |
| • Squirrels really relax during long winter’s nap. (4/9/03) | |
| An article from Scientific American magazine’s web site tell us, “Brian Prendergast of Ohio State University and colleagues studied 31 hibernating golden-mantled ground squirrels in the laboratory. These animals usually spend five to six months of the year in hibernation, during which time their body temperatures drop to within one or two degrees of the outside temperature. Each week or so, the squirrels awaken and stay up for 12 to 20 hours before returning to their hibernating state. The scientists tracked the animals’ sleeping patterns through body temperature measurements. When they went into hibernation, the researchers injected some of them with dead bacteria, which normally triggers an immune reaction. But the injections elicited very little response from the hibernating critters--they did not wake up nor did they register a fever. When their regularly scheduled arousal time arrived, however, the animals’ temperatures skyrocketed as if they had just been infected.” Click here for the whole article. | |
| • Squirrel leads police to stolen loot (4/4/03) | |
| Britain’s BBC reports, “A super-sleuth squirrel lent a paw to police on Thursday, when he helped them find stolen gear dumped by a burglar.” Click here for the full story. | |
| • Squirrels Conspire to Rule the World! (4/1/03) | |
| According to this hard-hitting journalistic exposé, “There is no Dave Barry. Not as you know him anyway. ‘Dave’ is really a cabal of super-intelligent squirrels. For years, the squirrels have been using a newspaper column in the Miami Herald to spread their propaganda, attempting to confuse and stupify the humans to make their eventual acendency to power easier. In fact, many east-coast news media outlets are secretly run ‘behind-the-scenes’ by the squirrel cabal.” Click here to see the untold facts. (Sorry, the link in this news item no longer works so it has been removed. -3/22/05) | |
| • Patriotic Squirrels? (3/25/03) | |
| This just in from Crystal Lake, Illinois’s Northwest Herald: “Pat Stokely, of Crystal Lake...is in the market to buy a new flag. Stokely had been flying a small flag on the mailbox of her Camelot Drive house. Earlier this week, she noticed that it was gone. After a brief search, she saw the flag stuck high in a tree in front of her house. A squirrel had ripped the flag off her mailbox and used it to build a nest. ‘Even the squirrels are patriotic,’ Stokely said.” Click here to see the article in the Northwest Herald. (Sorry, the link to the Northwest Herald article no longer works so it has been removed. -5/15/03) | |
| • Becoming forgetful? Maybe you’re getting in touch with your “inner squirrel!” (3/20/03) | |
| The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune reports, “Naturalists have observed that squirrels can remember where their food is stored for only about 20 minutes; after that, the food is found by odor alone. In this way, food storage benefits the whole local squirrel population rather than any one digger.” Click here to see the article in the Minneapolis-St.Paul Star Tribune. (Sorry, the link to the Star Tribune article no longer works so it has been removed. -5/15/03) | |
| • Squirrel Nutkin turns 100 (3/19/03) | |
| Britain’s newspaper, The Independent, reports that “Squirrel Nutkin qualifies for a telegram from the Queen this year. The furry favourite is two years younger than Beatrix Potter’s eldest, Peter Rabbit, and publisher Frederick Warne will begin celebrating his centenary with a limited edition of The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, leather-boxed and costing £100.” Click here to go to see the article at Independent Online. | |
| • Campus Squirrel Listings (3/16/03) | |
| According to the Campus Squirrel Listings site, “The quality of an institution of higher learning can often be determined by the size, health and behavior of the squirrel population on campus. This site documents the critter quality at schools throughout the United States and beyond!” | |
| • Do squirrels prefer SLR or point-and-click cameras? (3/11/03) | |
| Click here to see what the BBC has uncovered in trying to answer this important question. | |
| • Night of the Ill-Tempered Squirrel?!? (3/10/03) | |
| Mythrole Games' “Night of the Ill-Tempered Squirrel” is a silly card game in which players compete to make the worst horror movie they possibly can. | |
| • Twiggy the waterskiing squirrel in the Washington Post (3/7/03) | |
| Click here to read about Twiggy in the Washington Post. There’s a nice glamour shot, too. | |
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