The Urban Pantheist

A chewing noise was reported from the ceiling of this building. I went up on to the roof and found this large gap at the peak.


This is the view down the gap--rodents have been chewing the wood smooth. Since we don't have roof rats in our part of the country these are most likely gray squirrels or possibly flying squirrels.


I mostly meshed over the gap, leaving a space for any rodent inside to escape the roof and get caught in a live trap.

Squishing the squirrel I squish it.

I'm posting today's snapshot today because we're going to Vermont for the weekend and I won't be posting again until Monday. Then I work Monday and HOO BOY are you going to get spammed on Tuesday.

So I'm hearing from many on twitter that it's "Squirrel Appreciation Day." It's hard for me to think past the brush-tailed tree rats that chew through wood and plastic building materials and make my life more difficult, but I will try. Sciuridae is big successful family within the big successful Rodentia order. Here are some highlights from this blog:

( Read more... )

Dad and Andy 200 feet underground in a hole that smells of marine carnivore scat. How did we end up here?

( Let's find out )

Steph requested a pic of a prairie dog. Well, she requested a pic of a prairie dog fighting a squirrel, and I didn't come across that happening and it would be unethical to engineer it. In fact, this is the only glimpse I've had of any of the prairie dogs in the past couple months. They stay on exhibit during the winter, but are less active.

Prairie dogs are highly social ground squirrels found in the plains of North America. Historically they occurred in huge numbers, and were a keystone species for the plains ecosystem. They had the misfortune of occupying land that humans found to be useful for grazing livestock, and so were assigned the status of pest in their native habitat. Prairie dogs are still shot on sight in many places, though two of five species are listed as Endangered. The wholesale destruction of prairie dog towns led to the near extinction of the black-footed ferret.

Our prairie dogs are black-tailed prairie dogs Cynomys ludovicianus the species which still occurs in the largest numbers. This exhibit holds ten animals (I think) at the moment. The design of the exhibit (actually an old seal pool filled with soil) allows the guests to see the animals very closely. If you make the right kind of kissy noise at them, the prairie dogs will alarm bark and raise their forepaws in an adorable manner. They have a complex array of communication behaviors and probably think that our barking at them is pretty stupid. The prairie dog exhibit is one of the most popular animal exhibits in Children's Zoo.

Thanks for your donation, Steph! I'll be sending the stickers later next week.

If you have a request for a zoo animal you would like me to photograph, simply click the button and donate $5.00 to the New England Chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers! Thanks!

Squirrels have become a bigger part of my job lately, since the high acorn production of the past two years has led to a population explosion. They are fascinating urban wildlife, and they are serious nuisance pests destroying wood and plastic structures, building nests in building cavities, and even stealing food from the zoo animals. It seem quite apt that g_weir would send me these two comic strips:

I keep making mental notes to post links, and my mental notebook is full! Here are some items of interest from the internet, and possibly the real world too.


Courtesy of g_weir: ( an excerpt from Seven Ages of Paris by Alistaire Horne, explaining where France's taste for horse may have come from--the seige of Paris )From http://delanceyplace.blogspot.com/

From anais2: Perhaps dried squirrel is more to your liking?

I discovered this one on my own: Lethal centipede sting! (Includes gory pictures). "Nearly 5,000 centipede bites are reported every year in Turkey." Book your trip now!

In case you missed it in my Soylent Screen review, The apparent origins of the "Futurama" them song!

On this day in 365 Urban Species: Common eider.

Eastern Gray Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis

Fortunately for squirrels, they eat more than nuts. Like their less-beloved relatives, the mice and rats, squirrels are quite omnivorous. In addition to the seeds of trees, they eat flowers, mushrooms, and baby birds. They are as happy snacking on pizza crusts from a trash can as they are collecting acorns.

The fact that they can eat wild foods and garbage, as well as peanuts and popcorn from city park well-wishers, means that the density of urban gray squirrel populations may be higher than in a forest. Some cities and towns love their squirrels, especially if they are unusually colored. Eastern gray squirrels have spread far and wide from their original range, and can be found on the west coast as well as in Great Britain and Italy. Like many successful urban species, when introduced outside their native range, they become invasive.