Amber Alert

Just like all other beings, squirrels must be nurtured and loved by their mothers in order to ensure a happy and healthy lifestyle. Baby squirrels generally stay with their mother for around 6 to 10 weeks until they are mature enough to go out into the real world. However, as we all know, the world is a scary place and sometimes… a squirrel can get left behind along the way. Squirrel orphanage is a very real problem in today’s world and afflicts hundreds of helpless squirrels each and every day (this is not a legitimate fact. I included this simply for effect.) As sad as this is, there is of course a way that you can help!

Squirrels are born pink in color and without hair. It also takes a baby squirrel several weeks (3-5) to first open their eyes. Female squirrels generally have 3-5 babies in their litter, but orphanage commonly occurs when a baby squirrel falls out of the nest or is neglected by the mother and becomes cold in temperature. According to www.squirrel-rehab.org, once a baby squirrel becomes cold, a mother will refuse to continue the nurturing process. With this being said, you can tell if a squirrel is orphaned if it is hairless, pink, and without a mother or other squirrels surrounding it.

As mentioned before, a squirrel is neglected if its body is cold, so upon first finding an orphaned squirrel, you should hold it close to your body to distribute warmth. Once the squirrel increases in temperature, you are able to place it back near the tree or other area where you found it in hopes that the mother squirrel will return to claim it. However, if the mother squirrel does not come to reclaim its baby, you should take further action. Put on gloves and carefully place the squirrel in a small cardboard box next to a warm water bottle or towel and try to wait another hour or so. The baby squirrel will most likely cry for its mother, but if the mother does not return once an hour or so has passed, you become the new momma squirrel.

The next step you need to take is making sure that the squirrel is hydrated. Many people assume that the first nourishment you should provide a baby squirrel with is milk BUT THIS IS NOT TRUE DON’T DO THAT UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE A SQUIRREL MURDERER YOU PHYSCO. Instead, make sure the squirrel drinks a reasonable amount of water. In addition to water, it is also important that you provide the baby squirrel with formula. Basically, you give the squirrel baby formula. Honestly, it’s way too involved for me to get into so if you are genuinely interested in how to rehabilitate an orphaned squirrel, check out this website.

http://www.squirreltales.org/

Last but not least, make sure you treat the baby’s wounds! Cat bites are especially lethal to squirrels (ugh, stupid cats, they’re the worst) and if the squirrel is bit by a cat, be sure to take it to a veterinarian’s office right away.

 

You will probably never run into an orphaned squirrel.

But, if you do…

DON’T GIVE IT MILK OR LET A CAT BITE IT.

 

s

Siblings of the Squirrel

 

I completely understand that everyone feels differently about rodents—as in, obviously everyone loves them, but not necessarily the same one. We’re like snowflakes—each one is unique. I thought that it would be fun to embrace this individuality in my blog post this week! Also, I figured that you all may be a little sick (and creeped out) by reading about squirrels each and every week.

Now I want to make this very clear—I am in no way placing any of the following rodents above the squirrel. Don’t get me wrong, they’re nice and all, but none of them are the original slim shady.

Ok! Up first, I am going to go for the obvious target—the chipmunk.

Basically, chipmunks are wanna-be squirrels. It’s pitiful really, but I guess they’re alright.

Chipmunks live mainly in North America, but you can also find the Siberian chipmunk throughout Asia, Russia, and Japan. Chipmunks live for about 2-3 years in the wild (this alone proves their inferiority to the squirrel) and they like to eat seeds, nuts, berries, mushrooms, and bulbs. Some fun facts about the chipmunk include that they can gather up to 165 acorns in a single day and that a group of them is referred to as a “scurry.” (Also, no, I do not know these things off of the top of my head. That would be weird. Here is the link to the website I referenced: http://www.havahart.com/chipmunk-facts)

The next rodent I’d like to talk about is one that I had never heard of before doing some research, so I thought it would be fun to share! This type of rodent is classified as the ‘mara.’ The mara is a type of rodent that resides in South America. This specific animal is part of the caviidae family and is closely related to the common guinea pig! Maras are the fourth largest rodent in the world, reaching up to 24 pounds as adults. Generally, maras are brown in color with white dots and stripes. They can also leap up to 6 feet! (Once again, here is the link so you know that I’m not making all of this crazy information up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara_(mammal) )

 

In my opinion, I have saved the best rodent for last. The capybara is my second favorite rodent by far. Capybaras are a very little-known animal that also reside in South America. Capybaras are the largest rodent on the planet (weighing between 77 and 146 pounds) and are also part of the caviidae family, once again being very closely related to guinea pigs and maras. Capybaras are very social and can travel into groups of up to 100 members. The animals enjoy eating aquatic plants and fruit tree bark and are a very plentiful species throughout South America. In fact, so plentiful that they are often hunted for their fur and meat. Capybaras also make great pets! As mentioned before, they are very social and friendly around humans. Who needs a lap-dog when you can have a lap-capybara? Ugh, why are social standards so restricting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capybara

 

 

I hope you enjoyed learning about all of these super fun rodents!

 

This Is a ‘Nutty’ Post.

Squirrels have become a pretty hot topic in today’s society if you haven’t noticed… you may not have, but I certainly have so just take my word for it. It seems as if everyone is just hopping on the “squirrel band wagon” so to speak. To just remind you all one more time, I am NOT one of these people. I am no rookie to being a squirrel enthusiast my friends. I have 22 squirrel related objects in my room. This number may seem excessive, but I am a very subtle squirrel enthusiast. For example, I have squirrel earrings, a squirrel phone case, and three pairs of squirrel socks. It’s the little things. Anyways, I thought long and hard about what I should write this week because I am currently sitting in a car with no internet access and needed a topic that involved no research. So… this has brought us to the movies… a squirrel movie.

That little introduction about squirrels protruding into today’s society wasn’t just to increase my word count (well, not entirely at least.) Rather, I was trying to prove that squirrels are becoming a more and more popular animal, and this was proven through the release of the Nut Job in January of 2014. Just to clarify here, when I saw trailers for an all-squirrel movie airing on television, I physically could not contain myself. Obviously I enjoyed the movie because it involved squirrels, but not everyone felt this way… it earned a 5.8 through IMBd and when I went to see the movie itself, my boyfriend and I were literally the only two people in the entire theater.  But don’t let those things affect your feelings for the film!

The film was actually based off of a book called “Surly the Squirrel” by Peter Lepeniotis. I personally have not read the book because I hate reading and therefore cannot say how closely the movie coincides with the book. However, I can give a pretty mean recollection of the film (I watched it 3 times.)

You see, there is a massive clan of small critters that rely on a food supply inside of a tree in State Park in New York. Two of those critters include a male squirrel named Surly and a female squirrel named Andie. One day the tree catches on fire and all of the food inside of it is destroyed so Surly and Andie go out into the city looking for food for the clan. The two of them find a nut shop run by mafia members that are planning to rob a bank and replace the money inside of the bank with bags of peanuts. But then the police get involved and a high-speed chase occurs over a river on an unnecessarily long bridge. The truck being driven by the mafia, however, is filled with nuts instead of money. Then the truck falls into the river and all of the nuts float downstream to the park where the clan of outdoor critters resides. The animals are then left with an endless supply of nuts! Yay!

It’s non-fiction.

Just kidding.

It was actually a pretty bad movie.

But the squirrels were cute.

 

 

Don’t ask me why the squirrel is purple because I don’t know. 

Squirrel City

As I may or may not have mentioned before, it is becoming extremely difficult to write a blog about squirrels each and every week. Yes, squirrels are exciting and all, however… I don’t even have any more excuses. I guess I will just start writing now.

For this week’s blog, the topic will actually be a city in Washington! Why you may ask? Well, Longview Washington happens to be the most squirrel-oriented location in the country! Longview is located in Western Washington and has a population of nearly 37,000 (human population, that is. Their squirrel population is unfortunately N/A.) Longview’s squirrel obsession started way back in the 1960’s with the construction of a bridge—a squirrel bridge. A man named Amos Peter, who was a local businessman in the town, was sick of seeing innocent squirrels lose their lives everyday while attempting to cross the busy street outside of his office window. To fix the problem, he contacted two local engineers and installed a squirrel-sized bridge which was attached to two treetops that lined the road. The original squirrel bridge is named Nutty Narrows, and since then two more squirrel sized bridges have been installed around the city. As if the existence of the bridges themselves wasn’t fun enough, the town also installs miniature Christmas trees in the middle of each bridge around the holiday season!

Although squirrel bridges are certainly quite prominent in advancing the overall squirrel ideology of the city, the bridges actually aren’t the main attraction in Longview. In addition to the several bridges, Longview Washington also holds an annual Squirrel Fest! I know, it may sound a bit crazy, and weird, but this is no backyard barbecue kind of festival. If you don’t believe me, check out their website!

http://lvsquirrelfest.com/

Pretty impressive, isn’t it? The event also has its own Facebook page which boasts nearly 4,000 likes. The event was first established in August of 2011 by a local group called the Sandbaggers, which is the main pro-squirrel club around town (they are also responsible for the instillation of the two most recent squirrel bridges.) Obviously Squirrel Fest is rather squirrel oriented, but aside from a giant squirrel mascot and a lot of flavored nut food stands, Squirrel Fest is really like any other local celebration. It features music performances, beer and wine tasting, games and competitions for children, and a squirrel themed parade! Sign me up! Just kidding—Squirrel Fest has come and gone—in 2015, that is. Squirrel Fest occurred on August 15th of this year… if only I had started writing this blog earlier. Alas, I’ll be sure to make it to Longview someday for their squirrel themed celebration. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t show your support for squirrels right here on campus! It may not be quite as entertaining as a Festival, but Penn State does have its very own Penn State Squirrels Club! They feed squirrels on the Old Main lawn every Saturday, unless it’s raining. Be sure to bring your own unsalted nuts and apple slices! Woo hoo! Squirrels!