WEBVTT - Squirrels, Ahoy! 0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:08.280 Longtime listeners of Stuff You Should Know are well aware 0:00:08.400 --> 0:00:11.680 that I've come a long way with my feelings on squirrels. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:14.960 Time was I saw them as a common pest who 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:15.600 invaded my. 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:17.600 Bird feeders at Baby se Red. 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.120 But then along came my precious four legged daughter, Momo, 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.200 who taught me to appreciate squirrels and ways I never 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:27.280 thought possible. Now Momo takes me and her mom to 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:29.840 feed the squirrels in the park every morning, and now 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:32.120 a day goes back and I don't lift my gaze 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:35.360 to the skies and thank Mother Earth for our squirrel friends. 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:38.080 Squirrels are great squirrel's. 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:52.600 Ahoy, Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:57.400 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:01.520 I'm Josh, and there's Chuck and Jerry is here, and 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:04.760 this is one of the greatest episodes we'll ever do 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:06.040 as far as I'm concerned. 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:08.000 Squirrels. 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:11.560 Oh, I really want to squirrels. I've been seeing that 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:11.959 all day. 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:15.640 It's so wonderful. That is so wonderful. 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:18.039 It is that song isn't But you. 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:20.320 Know, uh yeah yeah. 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:22.520 If you go back and listen to BC Boys, you're. 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.119 Like, Wow, they come a long way. Though, and renouncing 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:25.800 that stuff. 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:30.280 Yeah, for sure. So we're talking not about the BC Boys, surprising, 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:33.360 and we're talking about squirrels in the morning. It's squirrels 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:35.319 there evening, it's squirrels. 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:37.240 Squirrels two syllables, right. 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:39.760 I don't care however you want to say it the 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:45.680 squirrel sure or Boston I guess probably they say it 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:50.000 similarly as well. Yeah, but if you want to get fancy, 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.520 you can bust out their Latin name. They're members of 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:57.680 the rodent Order. But for their family, their squore a day, 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:01.240 scure a day, Nope, secury day. 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:05.640 I look this one up, all right, Sierrade. 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:08.600 Like mine more? 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.960 Okay? Did you just toot on my renvation? 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:14.400 Yeah, even though it was correct. 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:15.560 Did you give me a bronx cheer? 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:19.240 How? How is it? Suride? 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.400 Well, let me do the person online? Sierra diye? 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:25.000 Okay? Is that Emma who said that? 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:27.880 Or at Sierra Day was another? But I think we've 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:30.000 heard from people that Dae is die. 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:35.000 Okay, And that's fine if that's what it's called. I'm 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:36.760 just gonna call them squirrels from now on. 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:38.040 But there's actually. 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:43.400 Exactly like three hundred species of squirrels and it's it's 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:46.360 kind of hard to wrap your head around because usually 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:49.120 if you live in a place with squirrels, meaning you 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:51.920 live on a continent outside of Antarctica. 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:52.320 Yeah, like everywhere. 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:56.160 Basically, they're probably a lot of squirrels living around you, 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.679 and they probably all look basically exactly alike. Because it 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.280 seems seems like when they fill an ecological niche, brother, 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:08.079 they fill it, and there's not much room for competing species, 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:10.160 it seems like from my experience. 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.840 Yeah, I mean, there are enough who helped us with this. 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:15.880 This this is a grabster. 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:20.799 Yeah, so Grabster points out that you know, you can 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:25.480 find mountain squirrels and city squirrels, and forest squirrels and 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:30.200 jungle squirrels and desert squirrels. You can find squirrels and 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:36.320 Alaska that hibernate with the lowest body temperature of any mammal, 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:38.920 that have body temperatures below freezing at times. 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:39.800 That's so cool. 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.000 You can go to Africa and find one of the 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:47.120 cutest squirrels, the African pigmy squirrel, which is as small 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:49.120 as a tiny little mouse. Where you can go to 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:54.080 Buttan and find the giant flying squirrel of Button that 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:58.080 with their head and body and is over two feet 0:03:58.080 --> 0:03:59.680 long with that tail, they're huge. 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.200 No, two feet long without the tail, oh, without stressing, Yes, 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:04.760 they're distressingly large. 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:07.800 Yeah, because the squirrel tail will get into this. But 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:12.560 that's one of their signature features generally, although depending on 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.080 the species, because there are three hundred species, like you said, 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:19.320 more than or almost three hundred, some of those tails 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:22.480 are a little diminished. But usually when you think squirrel, 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:23.800 you think of that big, bushy tail. 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:26.560 Yeah, and not only when you think of squirrel you 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:30.960 think of the tail. But the Greeks themselves, right, somebody 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:34.600 decided that a Greek term would make sense. But scurios 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:40.039 or scourios, which roughly means something like shadow tail ed, 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:42.919 says shady Butt. I also saw shadowtail, which is a 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:45.960 reference to how squirrels sometimes hide in the shadow cast 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:46.880 by their own tail. 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.200 It's pretty clever, but. 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:51.839 The squirrel is usually kind of The bushy tail of 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.080 the squirrel is what makes a squirrel a squirrel. One 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:56.400 of the other things that really differentiates it from other 0:04:56.560 --> 0:05:00.200 rodents is the way that it's jaw and muscle are 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.280 attached to its skull. There's actually a name for it, 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:11.200 seriomorphous zygomasoteric system. They look at you hooked on phonics 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:11.760 works for me. 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:16.040 You even recorded the new pronunciation. That's right, you worked 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:17.640 it right in there with a syria dye. 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:21.239 I adapted, yeah, because you should have heard it before 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:22.359 when I was workshopping it. 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:24.839 That was the first take. Everybody, we're not lying. 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:29.440 So so those are two things that really kind of 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:34.400 differentiate squirrels. But as we've really gotten better and better 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:40.360 at taxonomy with the introduction of geno mapping, sure we 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:42.960 can see, like, oh, this animal that doesn't look anything 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:47.320 like this animal is actually really closely related. And as 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:50.760 with just about every other animal we've studied using modern 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:56.760 genetic taxonomy, squirrels are Our understanding of squirrels has really 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:00.480 kind of changed shape of who's related to whom, who's 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:04.159 descended from who. But there's there We're kind of going 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:06.880 to go the old school way, which is differentiating them 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:12.040 based on their habitat and their behavior. So there's three 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:13.880 groups of squirrels that we're going to cover, even though 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:17.480 there's technically five subfamilies now, ground squirrels, tree squirrels, and 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:21.480 flying squirrels. And before we go any further, I officially 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:25.400 dedicate this episode to Momo, one of the great lovers 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:29.400 of squirrels of all time, who changed changed me in 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:31.320 my heart towards squirrels. 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:33.200 I used to be a squirrel hater. Chuck, do you 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:34.919 remember squirrels? You remember? 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.840 Oh? Yeah, the bird feeder Momo pointed out to me, said, Dad, 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:41.800 squirrels are great. I'm going to teach you to love them. 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:42.360 And she did. 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:47.200 Yeah, dogs and squirrels. It's what was the Disney It 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:52.640 was either Pixar Disney had an animated movie where the 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:57.279 dog would just stop and go squirrel anytime there's a squirrel. 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:58.520 I can't remember which one was. 0:06:59.000 --> 0:06:59.599 I don't remember. 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:02.000 It wasn't that long ago. But before we move on 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:04.760 to ground squirrels, it is kind of fun to learn 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:08.640 that because of that DNA analysis that we now have 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:12.360 at our fingertips and fossil evidence, we know that squirrels 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:17.200 went to western North America thirty five to forty million 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:20.160 years ago because squirrels like to get around. As we 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:23.720 will see, they crossed a land bridge to Eurasia about 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:27.560 ten million years after that, and then as soon as 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.280 they could as soon as Eurasia met up with Africa 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:32.920 about twenty million years ago, they went, all right, we're 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.360 in Africa now too. Because squirrels like to get around. 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:40.240 They as you will see, Well, we'll just tease that 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:41.520 and say, squirrels like to get around. 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:43.680 Yeah, I mean, you put one tree next to another, 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.080 squirrel's going to go from tree to tree. Put another tree, 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:47.840 squirrel's going to go the next tree. And if you 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:50.800 put trees all the way across one continent to another, 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:53.320 they're going to migrate. That's just what they do, and 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:55.520 that's what they did. But if I thought I loved 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:59.320 squirrels before, now that I know that they're actually native 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:03.200 from plenty five million years back to North America, I 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:05.320 just think that's that's just the tops. 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:07.640 Yeah, and we talked about it before when you were 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:10.960 having your bird feeder issue. But you know, Atlanta is 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:14.760 a city in the forest, and we have tons and 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:17.960 tons and tons of squirrels. Kind of everywhere along the 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.480 East Coast does, but Atlanta just has a lot of squirrels. 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.160 And as I was reading, you know, from my upstairs office, 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:27.040 there's a window not right in front of my face 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:30.000 but sort of above me and our huge, big, beautiful 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:32.920 oak in our front yard. I'm doing this on squirrels. 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:35.480 I just look up for a second and I see 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:39.800 four squirrels running around that tree together, playing like circling 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:40.839 it like a barber pole. 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:41.920 Yeah. 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:44.880 I take my daughter to school this morning, and I 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:47.000 count the squirrels that I see on the way. I 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:49.720 counted twenty two squirrels that I just saw on a 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:51.280 you know, twelve minute car ride. 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:53.160 You hit one of them there. 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:55.480 I have before. It's the worst thing ever. It is, 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:00.880 But they're everywhere in Atlanta, And it hit me a 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:06.400 while ago about how easy it is living here or 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:08.800 anywhere where there's a lot of squirrels, just to sort 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:10.839 of be like, yeah, the squirrels. But it kind of 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.559 hit me like how crazy it is that there are 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:17.679 these little mammals. They're not hiding in holes generally like 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:21.400 mice and stuff like that. Like they're just out all 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:24.200 over the place at all times. We're surrounded by these 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:24.880 little mammals. 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:26.320 Yeah, out and proud. 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:29.920 And if you come close too close to one of 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:31.920 their trees when you're walking by and the squirrel doesn't 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:35.079 like it, he's gonna sit there or she and chatter 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:37.120 at you and basically tell you to beat it. You 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.280 punk get away from my tree. That's how. That's one 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.680 of the great lovable things about squirrels. They have such 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.600 huge personalities. They're just so great. 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:45.960 Chuck. 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:49.800 Remember my famous squirrel attack not too long ago, and 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:52.240 when I went outside, I got it on my doorbell 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:55.120 camera and that squirrel leaped through the air and hit 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:58.439 me in the leg. It was a complete accident. Of course, 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:00.199 I don't think the squirrel was trying to kill me, But. 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:00.880 You don't know. 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:04.160 They're just they're all over the place. We're gonna get 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.440 to all the fun stuff about the black squirrels of 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:10.440 New York and why squirrels stop in the middle of 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:12.600 the road when they go to across the street. Like 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:15.400 there we found reasons for all this stuff, which I love. 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:17.720 It's not that squirrels are dumb, and we're gonna reveal 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:19.239 all that in this episode. 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.520 Okay, I'm a little excited. I'm a little worked up. 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.680 I know it's a ted early, but first break. Okay, 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:29.360 we're so squirrel positive that, I mean, that's a great 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:30.040 way to put. 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:31.920 It, Chuck, all right, so are we taking a break? 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:34.400 I say, all right, I need to calm down to 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:36.160 and I guarantee you I'm gonna go like blow my 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:37.760 nose in the other room. I'm gonna see a squirrel. 0:10:38.760 --> 0:11:02.200 I'll be right back, all right, Chuck. 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:07.480 So, as promised, we're gonna break squirrels down into three groups, crown, tree, flying, 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:12.960 or aerial. And I propose that we start with the 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:18.839 ground squirrel. Sure, many species of which you probably not you, 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:21.360 but I mean you, dear listener, and may all include 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:26.520 two I didn't realize were actual squirrels, like groundhog. 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:28.360 Chuck did not know that was a squirrel. 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:29.280 Chipmunk. 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:31.640 I had a feeling that might be a squirrel. 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:37.720 Gosh, they're so great too, Yeah, chipmunks. What about a groundhog? 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:39.080 You already said groundhog? 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:45.760 Did I yeah, okay, I'm swirling. I'm swirling still. And 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:48.920 my love squirrel prairie dog. Yeah, well that's what was 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:50.199 coming out of my mouth next. 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:50.679 To Patty Dog. 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:51.840 Yeah, prairie dog didn't know it. 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:53.559 What about that meerkat? 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:55.120 I didn't know that. 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:56.400 Well, that's because. 0:11:56.160 --> 0:12:01.800 They're not but okay, prairie dogs, chipmunks, and what's the 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:06.000 other one, marmots? Yeah, marmots and brought them in groundhogs. 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:10.080 Those are all ground squirrels. They're squirrels friends, and that 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.920 makes them pretty awesome. But one of the reasons why 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:16.160 they you wouldn't think they're squirrels is because in a 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:20.440 lot of those species they lack that characteristic bushy tail. Yeah, 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:25.080 but then also they live almost a totally different life 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:27.640 from their tree dwelling more famous cousins. 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:30.920 Yeah, I mean, they might climb a tree, but generally 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.200 you're not going to see a groundhogger prairie dog up 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.560 in the tree. If they need to, you know, for 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.280 a brief time, if they're trying to find food or 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:42.400 something or like on the run from something trying to 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:44.120 kill it, they might go up in a tree, but 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:46.400 they generally hang out on the ground, hence the name 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:52.120 they love their rocky terrain chipmunks for just speaking for them, 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:56.679 are pretty solitary unless they're trying to reproduce. But I 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:59.360 know that you've found some stuff, was it on the 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.320 prairie dog that have their big families and colonies. 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.559 Yeah, I mean that's one of the main characteristics of 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:08.920 ground squirrels in general, aside from a couple, but that 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:12.280 they're much more communal than tree squirrels, and in particular, 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:15.880 the largest town a prairie dog town, is what they're 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:19.360 called the largest prairie dog town on record is in Texas, 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.080 because of course everything's bigger there, But it was a 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:25.959 colony of black tailed prairie dogs. And this town, Chuck, 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:30.400 stretched one hundred miles wide, wow, by two hundred and 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:35.600 fifty miles long, and contain four hundred million prairie dogs. 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:39.040 My gos again, crownd squirrels all living in this kind 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:43.280 of large community. Jeez, I mean that's it's like a 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:45.880 Chinese megacity or something like that times ten. 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:49.280 Yeah, So are these the ones that tend to stay 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:51.840 grouped with their own sex? 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:57.240 No, those tend to be either tree squirrels or flying squirrels. 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:02.439 These are more the because they live in communal groups 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:07.520 and kinship is a big deal. Ground squirrels, like prairie dogs, 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.960 tend to have a really good ability to smell the 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.720 scent of other ground squirrels, so they can tell like 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:18.680 who's a blood relation who's not. They've done studies to see, 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:21.720 you know, like if a ground squirrel. They have a 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:25.680 lot of really sophisticated calls too, because they're alerting others 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:27.840 to the presence of a rattlesnake or a hawk or something. 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:31.080 So they're really talkative and they have a lot of 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:37.160 sophisticated different communication and they found that like a prairie 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:39.880 dog that will stand up and take the time to 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:44.800 risk its own life to alert others, it's actually alerting. 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.720 The others that it's alerting are actually related by blood. 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:50.600 And the groundhog or the prairie dog knows this because 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:54.120 it can smell its blood relations among all these other 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.000 you know, extended family members in the town. 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:00.640 There's not much cuter than a squirrel up on its 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:04.840 hot rear haunches. Yeah, whether it's I mean, obviously those 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:07.120 prairie dogs, you know, they do it for a living. 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:10.880 But even our eastern gray squirrels sit upon those back 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:13.360 legs if they want to work a nut with their 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:14.640 little front pop ads. 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.920 Yeah, or a chipmunk on its back legs. It's doesn't 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:18.560 get much cute. 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.800 It's little busy hands. Goodness me. Yeah, all right, So 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:24.160 we can move on to our tree squirrel. This is 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:29.200 they're known as arboreal squirrels obviously because they are tree squirrels. 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:32.160 And this is when you're talking your eastern gray squirrel. 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.760 This is not a groundhog, this is not a prairie dog. 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:40.560 This is your dyed in the wool. Cute, little fluffy 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.320 tailed sort of you know, they're called gray, but there's 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:45.920 sort of a light brownish color generally, although the colors 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.200 do range, as we'll see. And these are the ones 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:52.640 that you're gonna find all over Atlanta, jumping around, climbing around, 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:58.160 leaping it podcasters in their front lawn. Yeah, they spend 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:01.720 most of the time. I mean, you see them on 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:03.880 the ground plenty, but they live in trees. They nest 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:08.880 in trees called drays or drays or Drey's spelled with 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:10.320 a year an a right. 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:13.800 And you probably if you've ever looked up and seen 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.600 a mass of like sticks and twigs and a leafless 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:18.840 tree in the middle of winter, you're looking at a 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:22.080 squirrel's nest called a dre And this is where you 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.080 were you were asking about them staying in like same 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:31.160 sex groups apparently in the winter. Even though the tree 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.720 squirrel does not live in a communal society like a 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:38.800 ground squirrel does, they're still social. They still interact with 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:42.280 one another. They play, they chase, they chase one another off. 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:44.960 They like mate. But when it. 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:49.360 Gets really cold, tree squirrels will kind of group their 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:53.200 heat together by staying in a dre communally up to 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:57.200 like thirty members. It's able, Yeah, it is very adorable. 0:16:57.440 --> 0:16:59.600 I want to do a little exercise here real quick, Chuck. 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:01.960 I want you to use your imagination. 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:03.720 Close. 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:09.680 Imagine a very cold winter day. The wind's blowing, snow's 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:12.720 being carried on the wind, and it's passing by just 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:17.520 outside a woodpecker hole, and we're inside that woodpecker hole's dark. 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:20.440 The light is very very faint because it's it's kind 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:22.880 of an overcast, snowy day to begin with. But we're 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:25.800 also inside a tree, in an old woodpecker hole, and 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:28.440 it's lined with a bunch of different leaves, and there's 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:32.640 half a dozen or so squirrels, all kind of snuggled together, sleeping, 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:36.120 sharing their warmth as the winter day passes by outside 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:40.080 and they snooze an afternoon away fat on acorns that 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:43.360 they all just ate. Oh boy, isn't that amazing? 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:45.840 I almost fell asleep. You're real, Robert Fross, my friend, 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:46.840 Thank you. 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:50.439 Thank you. I like to think Robert Redford crossed with 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:51.320 Robert Cross. 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.680 But sure, well you know Robert Redford if you look 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:56.480 in the mirror, but Robert Frost when you pick a. 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:59.879 Bent up with the touch of Robert Goolay if. 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:03.440 You say it surely, Oh man, that really did almost 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.560 put me to sleep. That's quite nice. I love that scene. 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:10.040 So here's a little fun adaptation that squirrels have. If 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:14.240 you see a tree squirrel running down a tree face 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:20.440 first with little resistance, it's just like it was made 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:22.840 to do it. It's because it is. And they have 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:25.520 those little claws of course that really helps. But if 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:28.639 you look closely, or if you look up a picture 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:30.600 rather and you see like a still image, you will 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:33.960 notice that they have the ability to and Ed says 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:35.919 they can turn their feet around. They really kind of 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:40.080 just turn their whole back legs around backwards to where 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:45.440 those claws are gripping on the way down. And that's 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:48.000 why they're you know, it's like the perfect adaptation to 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:50.240 be able to run up and down a tree. 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:54.560 So if you ever watched one do that up close, sure, 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.520 so anytime I've seen that there, if you look their 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:00.879 legs because they're turned around and it kicks kind of 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:03.560 their elbows out a little bit, uh huh, and they 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:05.959 climb down, it looks a little different. And I've noticed 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:08.800 that it triggers the part of my lizard brain. That's 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:14.200 like a spider alert. It's like that's triggered by that. 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:17.920 So it's like a giant, furry spider is coming down 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:20.159 to some little part of my brain that sends off 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.600 an alarm, and it's really off putting sometimes until you 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:27.359 know the larger part, the executive functioning part of my 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:29.800 brain is like, it's a squirrel, don't worry, But there's 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:32.919 that one just zap of Like this is weird and 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:35.439 scary for a second, but it happens to me from 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:38.760 time to time when they come down the tree like that. 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:40.320 Well, it can be a little startling, you know, if 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:42.480 you're going to take out the trash or something and 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:44.320 your trash can is next to a big live oak 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.560 like ours is, and there are two or more squirrels 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:49.919 that are they seem I don't know what they're doing. 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:51.639 It seem like I have a beef with one another. 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:54.639 But maybe they're just playing chase. But when they're really 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:57.880 boogying up and down and around a tree right as 0:19:57.880 --> 0:19:59.760 you walk upon it is it can be a little 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:01.640 bit like, oh okay, I. 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:04.159 Read that when one was chasing the other. It's a 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:05.480 part of the mating ritual. 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:10.000 Oh Okay, so that's embarrassing for them, right. 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:13.040 I don't know if that's across the board, but I 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:14.359 saw that in at least one. 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:14.840 Place, all right. 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.080 I like knowing that. Here's another cool thing about squirrels. 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:22.080 All kinds of squirrels have scent glands, and it depends 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:24.520 on the species where that scent gland is located. It 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:27.280 can be near their little bum hole. It can be 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:30.280 near their mouth in the corners of their mouth, can 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:32.240 be on their back. But in the case of the 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:36.399 tree squirrel, they have their scent glands on their feet 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:39.560 and sweat glands on the bottom of their feet. And 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:43.879 they are a squirrel that buries their food over large. 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:47.560 Large areas sometimes like up to twenty five acres can 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:50.639 be their habitat where they're bearing and hiding food, and 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.000 they are literally every time they walk to bury something, 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:55.320 they're leaving a little scent trail that they can go 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:59.080 back and pick up. Ideally, but it's not a perfect system. 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:01.520 Sometimes they will lose stuff and not be able to 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:04.320 go back. But what they have then done is planted 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:05.000 a tree. 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:09.960 Yeah, which brings up their huge ecological role, which is 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:14.680 like planting new forests, like keeping forests healthy by forgetting 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:17.399 about nuts. And the nut is actually a seed and 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:19.960 it grows into a new tree that the squirrel helped 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:21.040 move away from the tree. 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:22.639 It's amazing its range. 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:24.240 They're known as the gardeners of the forest. 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:26.600 Yeah, and we taught we did a whole short stuff 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:29.040 on squirrels bearing nuts, and I remember one of the 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.159 things that came up was there was a study that 0:21:32.240 --> 0:21:35.560 found that they if they know they're being watched by another. 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:37.240 Squirrel, they'll fake dig a hole. 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:39.040 And then won't drop the nut in it, And then 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:42.119 we'll go somewhere else and mislead a squirrel. 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:43.600 It's that they think is watching them. 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:45.639 Yeah, they'll look around first and be like, did anyone 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:47.920 see that? Yeah, I think I'm good. 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:50.119 Tod was watching. I better not drop the nut in 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:51.840 this hole. He'll come along. 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:54.720 So that's what the the I'm sorry, not flying, but 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:57.359 the tree squirrels. That's how they use their scent. The 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:00.840 ground squirrels, we should say, mainly use the scent glands 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.679 to mark their territory. And you know, because they're all 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:07.200 about their clan and their colony, to sort of mark 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:09.560 their territory and find out if someone is a part 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:10.119 of their clan. 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:11.240 Yeah. 0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:13.680 And then also as far as sense go, I saw 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:17.640 some somewhere that some kinds of ground squirrels that are 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:22.160 prey to rattlesnakes will actually find shed rattlesnake skin rub 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:24.400 it on themselves. Oh wow, chew it up and rub 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:27.280 it on themselves to give themselves a rattlesnake scent to 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:29.000 throw off rattlesnakes. 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:30.760 They camouflage their scent. 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:31.560 That's pretty cool. 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:32.720 Yeah. 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:34.359 I wonder if they ever wear it and just like 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:36.560 fashion a couple of holes and stick their arms through. 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:38.600 Yeah, and they bragged that they killed it. 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:42.440 Yeah, have you man? I shouldn't even mention this. Yeah, 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:43.239 I'm gonna mention it. 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:44.119 Have you? 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:46.560 Because it is granted it is roadkill. But have you 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:49.840 ever seen the pictures of the squirrel roadkill with the 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:57.000 little G I Joe action figures? No, just look it up, 0:22:57.400 --> 0:23:00.840 I can. They aren't squirrels at some one killed. It's 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:03.840 someone will take a roadkill picture of a squirrel and 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:06.120 they'll take the little G I Joe figures as if 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:09.560 they were big game hunters, and they'll have their guns 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:11.800 and they'll have like one leg up on the squirrel's head. 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:14.800 As if it was their trophy. And the squirrel looks 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:18.120 positively giant next to the little action figures, and it's 0:23:18.200 --> 0:23:18.960 kind of funny. 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:20.240 I'll have to check that one out. 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:21.960 I don't want to encourage people. Maybe I shouldn't have 0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:22.560 even said anything. 0:23:22.560 --> 0:23:24.399 Well, I don't know if you're encouraging people to like 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:29.560 swerve onto a squirrel, you know, one guy or. 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:31.880 Kill a squirrel to do that. But maybe just took 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:33.359 it up on the internet. If you want to see that, 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:34.159 don't recreate it. 0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:36.679 If you kill a squirrel and we find out about it, 0:23:36.720 --> 0:23:38.320 we're coming to your house. 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:42.640 I know. Okay with a ghost of that squirrel. Yeah, 0:23:42.760 --> 0:23:45.679 that will introduce to your attic you go. 0:23:47.160 --> 0:23:49.440 So have we moved on to flying squirrels. 0:23:49.080 --> 0:23:51.800 Yet, Yeah, let's do it. Those are you know the 0:23:51.800 --> 0:23:53.560 old story when we had one growing up for a 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:56.880 little while. You probably don't remember, but my uncle gave 0:23:56.960 --> 0:23:59.639 us his flying squirrel to watch for a while, and 0:23:59.680 --> 0:24:02.440 he would leap from the curtains on the other side 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:05.000 of the room onto my shoulder. And then when we 0:24:05.040 --> 0:24:07.640 went out of town, apparently they said the squirrel got out. 0:24:08.000 --> 0:24:10.240 But now that I'm an adult, I realized that the cat 0:24:10.359 --> 0:24:14.400 ate the squirrel. Oh man, yeah, just to recap that 0:24:14.600 --> 0:24:18.960 childhood trauma. That's well okay, But for a little while, 0:24:19.000 --> 0:24:20.600 we had a flying squirrel in our home. 0:24:21.800 --> 0:24:23.080 For a brief shining moment. 0:24:23.119 --> 0:24:24.360 That's the upshot. 0:24:24.640 --> 0:24:27.360 So a flying squirrel, and I thought this. I thought 0:24:27.359 --> 0:24:31.240 they were fairly rare. Apparently they're as common as tree 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:34.560 squirrels in some places. The reason that you think they're 0:24:34.640 --> 0:24:37.719 rare is because they're nocturnal, so we're usually sleeping when 0:24:37.720 --> 0:24:38.600 they're out and about. 0:24:38.840 --> 0:24:41.120 I love thinking about those things just flying around all night. 0:24:41.720 --> 0:24:44.880 Yeah, and flying is right, man, I saw Ed says 0:24:44.880 --> 0:24:46.800 the thing glide up to one hundred and fifty feet. 0:24:46.800 --> 0:24:49.120 I saw three hundred in some cases. 0:24:49.240 --> 0:24:49.560 Wow. 0:24:50.200 --> 0:24:52.479 And that's what they're doing. They're gliding. They're not flying. 0:24:52.520 --> 0:24:55.880 They have no means of like propulsion. But they have 0:24:55.960 --> 0:24:59.040 a skin flap. They've evolved a skin flap that is 0:24:59.800 --> 0:25:03.360 you know the batsuit that people like you know, skydive with. 0:25:03.880 --> 0:25:06.040 That's that is based basically one. 0:25:06.040 --> 0:25:11.000 Hundred percent on the flying squirrel's membranes between its front 0:25:11.359 --> 0:25:16.160 legs and hind legs that it can you know, spread 0:25:16.160 --> 0:25:18.520 out when it jumps and it just catches the air. 0:25:18.560 --> 0:25:20.959 And they can move it this way and that and 0:25:21.320 --> 0:25:23.920 use their tail as a rudder and go one hundred 0:25:23.920 --> 0:25:26.959 and fifty feet in a pretty purposeful direction too. 0:25:27.400 --> 0:25:28.879 Did you say what the name of the flap was? 0:25:29.720 --> 0:25:29.840 No? 0:25:30.359 --> 0:25:30.959 Do you want to? 0:25:31.640 --> 0:25:31.680 No? 0:25:31.800 --> 0:25:32.800 I probably screwed it. 0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:36.800 I'm gonna go with potagium. 0:25:37.320 --> 0:25:39.880 That's great. What do they call that? Pada gayum? 0:25:41.400 --> 0:25:44.080 I wonder what they call that in the in the 0:25:44.119 --> 0:25:48.320 Flying Suit Bizz Extreme Flying Suit Biz. I don't know, and. 0:25:48.400 --> 0:25:51.520 I think they call them batsuits, but that's that's a misnomer. 0:25:51.560 --> 0:25:53.840 If you ask me those I gotta say. I mean, 0:25:53.880 --> 0:25:55.400 I'm not into any of that stuff. I would never 0:25:55.440 --> 0:25:58.760 do it, but those videos are amazing and it's oh, 0:25:58.800 --> 0:26:02.080 I know, as humans have come I think to flying 0:26:02.160 --> 0:26:04.240 it feels like agreed. 0:26:05.160 --> 0:26:06.560 Yeah, I would have to have. 0:26:07.920 --> 0:26:11.359 Probably a lobotomy to to actually try that. It would 0:26:11.359 --> 0:26:13.840 take that radical of a personality change for me to 0:26:13.880 --> 0:26:14.239 try it. 0:26:14.600 --> 0:26:16.520 Well, And I mean sure that kind of thing that's 0:26:16.560 --> 0:26:19.520 the most extreme, like years and years of training, yes, 0:26:19.680 --> 0:26:21.840 skydiving training and stuff like that. You know, like run 0:26:21.920 --> 0:26:23.359 jump into a batsuit? 0:26:23.600 --> 0:26:24.720 No, no, no, definitely not. 0:26:24.800 --> 0:26:26.560 But even if you do, you know, once you get 0:26:26.600 --> 0:26:29.359 to that point, like, I can't imagine how dangerous that is. 0:26:29.400 --> 0:26:33.159 You know, if you smack into something you're going really fast. 0:26:32.960 --> 0:26:36.040 Yeah, yeah, your toast. Yeah, and that happens sadly. 0:26:36.680 --> 0:26:39.480 But I get the impression that it's the rush is 0:26:39.480 --> 0:26:40.440 worth the risk. 0:26:41.480 --> 0:26:47.200 That's right. And speaking of risk, there are endangered flying squirrels, 0:26:47.760 --> 0:26:51.320 the Carolina Northern flying squirrel. And we talked a little 0:26:51.320 --> 0:26:53.720 bit about these little land bridges that are starting to 0:26:53.720 --> 0:26:59.040 pop up in the United States over overpasses and freeway crossings. 0:26:59.320 --> 0:26:59.679 Yeah. 0:27:00.040 --> 0:27:03.000 I just read today there's one in LA that's opening 0:27:03.080 --> 0:27:06.320 up that's like one hundred and sixty feet wide. I 0:27:06.320 --> 0:27:08.199 can't remember the name of it. It's named after someone 0:27:08.880 --> 0:27:12.359 and to allow cougars and you know, mountain lions to 0:27:12.520 --> 0:27:16.760 pass and all kinds of animals, and they're using you know, 0:27:16.840 --> 0:27:20.719 they have done studies for squirrels in that they found 0:27:20.800 --> 0:27:25.520 tagged like radio tagged squirrels are foraging and building on 0:27:25.560 --> 0:27:28.880 the other side of these massive freeways thanks to these bridges, 0:27:28.920 --> 0:27:30.120 Like it's been proven to work. 0:27:30.520 --> 0:27:33.640 Yeah for sure. I think it's called the Robert Evans 0:27:33.840 --> 0:27:36.000 Memorial Animal Land Bridge. 0:27:36.240 --> 0:27:39.560 Baby. Yeah, if only. 0:27:41.920 --> 0:27:42.000 So. 0:27:42.800 --> 0:27:45.000 That actually kind of leads us to a quote I 0:27:45.040 --> 0:27:49.119 ran across Chuck because if you put like I was saying, 0:27:49.200 --> 0:27:51.400 if you can kind of connect a tree to another tree, 0:27:51.640 --> 0:27:54.680 which really ties into that rewilding episode because you're you're 0:27:54.760 --> 0:27:58.080 using you're connecting core to core via corridor basically is 0:27:58.240 --> 0:28:02.480 what they're doing with that. That there was an old 0:28:02.560 --> 0:28:06.040 saying that before, well not too long ago, I think 0:28:06.080 --> 0:28:10.000 into the eighteenth century, maybe even early nineteenth century, that 0:28:10.040 --> 0:28:14.199 there was so many chestnut trees in North America that 0:28:14.280 --> 0:28:17.040 a squirrel could make it from Maine to Georgia without 0:28:17.080 --> 0:28:18.240 ever touching the ground. 0:28:18.440 --> 0:28:19.600 Yeah, where did we cover that in? 0:28:19.920 --> 0:28:20.040 Was it? 0:28:20.560 --> 0:28:21.360 I don't remember? 0:28:21.720 --> 0:28:23.639 I remember that Factoi. That's a great one. 0:28:24.200 --> 0:28:27.760 So it really kind of goes to show like there 0:28:27.880 --> 0:28:30.639 used to be a lot more forests in the United States, 0:28:30.640 --> 0:28:33.880 but there were also a lot more squirrels because there's 0:28:33.920 --> 0:28:39.160 a there's a positive correlation between mass producing trees, which 0:28:39.200 --> 0:28:45.400 are chestnut, beech oak trees that produce nuts that squirrels 0:28:45.400 --> 0:28:51.400 and other forest animals eat, and the number and population 0:28:51.520 --> 0:28:53.840 density of squirrels in an area. You have a lot 0:28:53.880 --> 0:28:56.360 of mass producing trees, you're going to have a lot 0:28:56.400 --> 0:28:59.680 of squirrels because again, they fill their ecological niche to 0:28:59.720 --> 0:29:00.760 base bursting. 0:29:01.760 --> 0:29:06.120 Yeah, and they you know, bursting with food because they 0:29:06.200 --> 0:29:10.200 are opportunistic eaters, is what Ed says. And that's a 0:29:10.240 --> 0:29:12.720 pretty good way to say it. Because while they well, 0:29:12.720 --> 0:29:15.000 obviously if they can get fruit or nuts and seeds, 0:29:15.040 --> 0:29:18.560 that's the stock of their diet. But they will eat 0:29:18.600 --> 0:29:22.240 whatever keeps them alive. They will eat insects and fungus, 0:29:22.280 --> 0:29:25.040 and they actually spread fungus, which is great. Yeah, they 0:29:25.040 --> 0:29:28.320 eat roots. They have they have found little tiny eggs 0:29:28.320 --> 0:29:31.400 and little tiny birds and little tiny lizards in the 0:29:31.920 --> 0:29:37.680 guts of squirrels, so they you know, technically are omnivores, 0:29:39.160 --> 0:29:42.600 which is just to say squirrels are remarkable. That's staying alive, 0:29:42.640 --> 0:29:44.480 and they will eat your garbage. They will eat whatever 0:29:44.520 --> 0:29:46.880 they need to, but that's only if they're not finding 0:29:47.400 --> 0:29:49.720 the nuts and the seeds and stuff like that, which 0:29:49.720 --> 0:29:52.640 there are generally plenty plenty of in the United States. 0:29:53.120 --> 0:29:56.200 And one reason that they're they're suited for nuts, or 0:29:56.200 --> 0:29:59.040 that nuts are suited for them, is because they have 0:29:59.760 --> 0:30:02.360 two sets of incisors. I believe it up and a 0:30:02.480 --> 0:30:06.560 down is the technical term, and they grow constantly throughout 0:30:06.600 --> 0:30:10.080 their lifetime. I think they grow something like, is this 0:30:10.160 --> 0:30:12.960 even possible that I'm seeing it six inches a year? 0:30:13.960 --> 0:30:16.840 Well, I mean they're constantly grinding them down, so I 0:30:16.880 --> 0:30:19.200 think if a squirrel was in a coma, they could 0:30:19.240 --> 0:30:20.160 have six inch fang. 0:30:20.320 --> 0:30:20.920 That's crazy. 0:30:20.960 --> 0:30:24.000 And then apparently if they don't continuously grind them down 0:30:24.320 --> 0:30:27.240 and they kept growing, they would grow through the top 0:30:27.280 --> 0:30:30.840 and the bottom of their face all a Lisa Simpson 0:30:30.880 --> 0:30:32.600 that time she needed braces. 0:30:33.840 --> 0:30:34.640 But that's crazy. 0:30:34.680 --> 0:30:38.000 So they use these very very hard nuts, like a 0:30:38.120 --> 0:30:42.320 chestnut or pecan or walnut shell to impart. It's a 0:30:42.360 --> 0:30:44.560 food source. But as they're getting to the food source, 0:30:44.600 --> 0:30:47.360 they're keeping their teeth ground down, which apparently they have 0:30:47.480 --> 0:30:48.680 to do all the time. 0:30:49.400 --> 0:30:52.280 That's pretty amazing. Squirrels also like a little sweet treat 0:30:52.320 --> 0:30:54.920 every now and then. They have found red squirrels in 0:30:55.000 --> 0:30:58.240 Maine that will tap sugar maple trees. They make little 0:30:58.240 --> 0:31:00.560 bite marks in the tree and then and they just say, 0:31:00.560 --> 0:31:01.960 all right, do your thing, and they come back a 0:31:01.960 --> 0:31:06.560 few days later and that trap has hardened up and 0:31:06.640 --> 0:31:08.960 run out a little bit. And that is just a little, 0:31:09.000 --> 0:31:10.360 tiny sweet treat for a squirrel. 0:31:10.560 --> 0:31:13.760 That's right, It's pretty awesome. They also found that Squirrels 0:31:13.800 --> 0:31:17.720 can learn by observing other squirrels doing something, particularly finding 0:31:17.960 --> 0:31:21.280 new ways to get food. Their adept at that. 0:31:21.880 --> 0:31:25.080 Oh okay, so they see Todd doing something, they say, 0:31:25.160 --> 0:31:27.040 not a bad idea, let's give that a shot. 0:31:27.360 --> 0:31:29.600 Yeah, that Todd really came around. 0:31:30.080 --> 0:31:31.640 Yeah, and if you'll notice, I think we kind of 0:31:31.640 --> 0:31:35.080 skipped over this if we didn't mention Australia squirrels I 0:31:35.120 --> 0:31:37.720 think used to be in Australia but aren't so much now. 0:31:38.720 --> 0:31:41.240 And is it a mystery or is it just the 0:31:41.320 --> 0:31:44.480 obvious that the Australians were like SIPs on mate. 0:31:45.440 --> 0:31:46.040 I don't know. 0:31:46.120 --> 0:31:47.960 I didn't see that anywhere, but I know that they 0:31:48.000 --> 0:31:52.120 introduced the Eastern gray and then in Perth they introduced 0:31:52.160 --> 0:31:56.080 the Indian palm, which is like if you mashed together 0:31:56.120 --> 0:31:58.240 an Eastern gray squirrel in a chipmunk, that it would 0:31:58.280 --> 0:31:59.280 be an Indian palm. 0:31:59.400 --> 0:31:59.560 Yeah. 0:32:00.000 --> 0:32:03.000 Well, but apparently they both died out. I don't know 0:32:03.040 --> 0:32:05.080 if it's a mystery or not, like you're saying, but 0:32:05.120 --> 0:32:09.520 supposedly there's some feral colonies that escape from zoos, at 0:32:09.640 --> 0:32:13.680 least in Perth. So there are wild squirrels in Australia, 0:32:13.720 --> 0:32:17.040 but they were introduced in the nineteenth century, which is 0:32:17.040 --> 0:32:19.840 actually a trend, as we'll see. But I say before 0:32:19.880 --> 0:32:22.760 we tackle all that, we take a break. How about that? 0:32:22.920 --> 0:32:24.680 All right, Well we'll take the break and we'll talk 0:32:24.720 --> 0:32:26.440 about squirrel migration right after this. 0:32:48.720 --> 0:32:51.760 Okay, Chuck, so as I was saying, like back before 0:32:51.960 --> 0:32:54.800 pre colonial days in particular, but also even into the 0:32:54.960 --> 0:32:58.480 nineteenth century, I think even the nineteen sixties, there were 0:32:58.560 --> 0:33:04.320 reports of a massive numbers of squirrels basically stampeding. Yea, 0:33:04.880 --> 0:33:07.840 they call them squirrel migrations, and they have been documented 0:33:08.200 --> 0:33:10.800 enough times that it's not an anomaly, but they are 0:33:10.840 --> 0:33:14.560 fairly rare. And today they've kind of figured out that 0:33:14.880 --> 0:33:18.880 there aren't dense enough populations of squirrels to ever have 0:33:18.920 --> 0:33:22.360 a genuine like squirrel stampede like they had before. But 0:33:22.400 --> 0:33:24.760 there used to be so many of them that every 0:33:24.760 --> 0:33:27.600 once in a while, thousands to tens of thousands to 0:33:27.720 --> 0:33:31.440 tends to tens of thousands of squirrels would pass generally 0:33:31.480 --> 0:33:35.200 in like a big wave over an area. And apparently 0:33:35.240 --> 0:33:36.479 it was quite a thing to see. 0:33:37.000 --> 0:33:41.200 I imagine it was. And this happened because there would 0:33:41.240 --> 0:33:45.000 just be a really big fruitful year for squirrel food 0:33:45.760 --> 0:33:49.200 tons of availability, and they would you know, they would 0:33:49.200 --> 0:33:51.280 boom in numbers because they go to where the food is. 0:33:51.800 --> 0:33:55.720 And usually if that is followed by or I guess historically, 0:33:55.760 --> 0:33:59.120 when that was followed by a really bad year like 0:33:59.160 --> 0:34:01.560 the rain you know, didn't work out so great for 0:34:01.760 --> 0:34:05.440 producing nuts and seeds and stuff and fruit, that all 0:34:05.480 --> 0:34:07.640 of a sudden, you've got a ton of squirrels in 0:34:07.680 --> 0:34:10.919 an area that are all looking around, going, oh, what's 0:34:10.960 --> 0:34:13.920 the deal. And they're opportunitists, so they said, all right, 0:34:13.920 --> 0:34:15.200 we're getting out of here. We're going to where the 0:34:15.200 --> 0:34:19.120 food is. Let's go everybody. And they would do it 0:34:19.160 --> 0:34:19.480 all at. 0:34:19.440 --> 0:34:22.160 Once, yeah, all at once for some reason. And so 0:34:22.239 --> 0:34:25.960 there's migrations. They would be they'd be running through the forest, 0:34:26.000 --> 0:34:28.760 they'd be running across fields, they'd be swimming across rivers, 0:34:28.800 --> 0:34:33.080 and apparently, in at least one account, I saw they 0:34:33.120 --> 0:34:35.759 would be gulped up by bass in the rivers. And 0:34:35.840 --> 0:34:38.839 I can't imagine seeing anything worse than a squirrel being 0:34:38.840 --> 0:34:40.400 eaten by a fish. 0:34:40.400 --> 0:34:41.440 That seems unnatural. 0:34:41.800 --> 0:34:43.400 Yeah, but there were so many of them. And this 0:34:43.520 --> 0:34:47.200 is also at a time where squirrels were roundly among 0:34:47.280 --> 0:34:54.319 basically everyone living in America viewed as vermin as invaders, 0:34:54.440 --> 0:34:57.359 as things that were unwanted, but also a tasty food 0:34:57.400 --> 0:35:00.000 source too. Yeah, So anytime there was a squirrel stamp, 0:35:01.120 --> 0:35:03.760 the yokels would run out with their sticks and bags 0:35:03.800 --> 0:35:06.160 and beat squirrels to death and then cook them and 0:35:06.239 --> 0:35:08.279 sell their pelts and do all sorts of things with them. 0:35:08.719 --> 0:35:10.520 And one of the reasons why they were viewed as 0:35:10.600 --> 0:35:13.960 vermin chuck is because on these squirrel migrations and other 0:35:14.040 --> 0:35:15.799 times where they were just you know, if you were 0:35:15.880 --> 0:35:20.040 unlucky with your planting, those squirrels might see as a 0:35:20.040 --> 0:35:22.520 food source the crops you just planted all those seeds 0:35:22.560 --> 0:35:25.280 and would dig them up and ruin your year's crops 0:35:25.280 --> 0:35:28.440 in a day or so. So people didn't like squirrels 0:35:28.440 --> 0:35:30.800 for a very long time. And this idea of squirrels 0:35:30.840 --> 0:35:33.560 being everywhere, these little mammals living among us, like you 0:35:33.600 --> 0:35:38.400 were talking about earlier, that's fairly new, and that's actually 0:35:38.520 --> 0:35:43.759 very deliberate and purposeful, because squirrels were basically gone up 0:35:43.840 --> 0:35:46.839 until about the mid to late nineteenth century in America. 0:35:47.400 --> 0:35:51.359 Yeah, I mean, between being hunted because people hated them 0:35:52.040 --> 0:35:55.360 on their farms, like you said, people and people still 0:35:55.400 --> 0:35:59.680 and like generally in certain parts of like Appalachia, still 0:35:59.719 --> 0:36:02.080 eat squirrel on the menu. It is a little gamey 0:36:02.080 --> 0:36:04.000 from what I'm told, I'm never going to eat a squirrel, 0:36:04.360 --> 0:36:06.520 but they still use pelts. But that kind of, you know, 0:36:06.880 --> 0:36:09.120 just like they would eat any larger mammal and use 0:36:09.160 --> 0:36:12.600 their pelts. They would just get crafty with you know, 0:36:12.840 --> 0:36:16.000 as small as a squirrel. And certainly in times of 0:36:16.719 --> 0:36:20.200 you know, real need, you know, small rodents would come 0:36:20.200 --> 0:36:23.879 in handy on the menu back then. But they were 0:36:23.920 --> 0:36:28.719 almost gone. We started growing more urban in the eighteen hundreds, obviously, 0:36:29.440 --> 0:36:32.040 and they were killing squirrels as fast as they could. 0:36:32.680 --> 0:36:35.279 And in the eighteen forties and fifties there were so 0:36:35.400 --> 0:36:41.239 few squirrels that they were introduced to city parks, but 0:36:41.360 --> 0:36:43.800 not many. At first. They were just like this weird 0:36:43.880 --> 0:36:46.719 curiosity where you would go out kind of like bird 0:36:46.760 --> 0:36:49.120 watching and you would like try to spot a squirrel 0:36:49.160 --> 0:36:52.680 running around because it was such a novel thing. But 0:36:52.719 --> 0:36:55.160 then by the time Frederick law Olmsted, who by the way, 0:36:55.200 --> 0:36:59.080 deserves his own podcasts, came along and really introduced the 0:36:59.120 --> 0:37:01.720 idea of these really large city parks and urban parks. 0:37:02.640 --> 0:37:06.440 They introduced a lot of squirrels to these parks and 0:37:06.480 --> 0:37:09.239 they really really like that. That's kind of why we 0:37:09.239 --> 0:37:11.640 have the squirrels we have today, was from this movement 0:37:11.680 --> 0:37:14.640 to reintroduce them in a big way to urban parks. 0:37:14.960 --> 0:37:17.040 Yeah, and I mean we talked kind of a lot 0:37:17.080 --> 0:37:20.200 about that whole idea in our Central Park episode, This 0:37:20.320 --> 0:37:22.719 idea that you know, they just kept building the city 0:37:22.760 --> 0:37:24.439 and building the city and building the city, and people 0:37:24.440 --> 0:37:27.239 started going crazy because there weren't green spaces. So that 0:37:28.480 --> 0:37:31.120 brought the parks in, and then the idea of adding 0:37:31.160 --> 0:37:33.560 animals to the park just to kind of naturalize it 0:37:33.600 --> 0:37:37.319 even more. That squirrels played a huge role in that. 0:37:38.120 --> 0:37:40.640 And not only you know, in Central Park, but also 0:37:40.840 --> 0:37:43.560 it started out and I believe Philadelphia and then followed 0:37:43.560 --> 0:37:47.800 by Boston, and so by the mid to late nineteenth century, 0:37:48.120 --> 0:37:51.480 that's when squirrels started to re establish themselves and the 0:37:51.520 --> 0:37:55.160 way that people saw squirrels started to change too, And 0:37:55.200 --> 0:37:59.799 there was this idea that they weren't vermin anymore. Don't 0:37:59.840 --> 0:38:02.880 you them, Please try not to hit them with a stick. Instead, 0:38:03.160 --> 0:38:05.360 let's go to the park, spend some time outside and 0:38:05.400 --> 0:38:08.360 bring some nuts with you and maybe feed the squirrels, 0:38:08.920 --> 0:38:10.480 and not only you feed the squirrels, but you got 0:38:10.480 --> 0:38:12.480 a little kid. That little kid wants to hit that 0:38:12.480 --> 0:38:15.640 squirrel with a stick so bad because kids are awful 0:38:15.760 --> 0:38:16.160 like that. 0:38:16.200 --> 0:38:16.719 Good luck. 0:38:17.160 --> 0:38:20.960 You can actually use squirrels feeding squirrels as a way 0:38:21.000 --> 0:38:25.600 to teach kids to have compassion, to be upstanding morally, 0:38:25.719 --> 0:38:28.920 to have charity. And that was kind of how the 0:38:29.360 --> 0:38:33.640 whole interaction between humans and squirrels was kind of framed 0:38:34.239 --> 0:38:37.240 around that time, like the late nineteenth early twentieth century. 0:38:37.480 --> 0:38:42.240 Yeah, the Boy Scout co founder Ernest Thompson's Seaton said 0:38:42.719 --> 0:38:46.560 that squirrels, in introducing them to boys in general, would say, 0:38:46.719 --> 0:38:50.719 would cure them of their tendency toward cruelty. But I said, 0:38:50.719 --> 0:38:52.399 good luck a second ago. How do you hit it? 0:38:52.680 --> 0:38:54.759 I mean, I guess if there's a stampede. But you 0:38:54.800 --> 0:38:56.600 show me a kid that can get a squirrel and 0:38:56.680 --> 0:38:59.960 hit it with a stick, and that's a future OLYMPI 0:39:00.080 --> 0:39:02.880 In sure, there's no way. Those things are so fast. 0:39:04.080 --> 0:39:05.920 But don't try to do it, kids, definitely. 0:39:05.719 --> 0:39:08.279 No, don't even practice that. Don't try to qualify for 0:39:08.320 --> 0:39:10.239 the Olympics. And that because you'll show up to the 0:39:10.280 --> 0:39:13.400 Olympics and'll be like, we don't have that, that's not 0:39:13.640 --> 0:39:14.840 one of our sports is what. 0:39:14.840 --> 0:39:16.040 Do you think you says Australia. 0:39:17.040 --> 0:39:17.279 Right. 0:39:18.760 --> 0:39:21.360 So these days, you know, we've kind of come full 0:39:21.400 --> 0:39:26.919 circle into just sort of letting squirrels be there. Are 0:39:27.280 --> 0:39:29.440 you know, if you're a hunter in the United States, 0:39:30.400 --> 0:39:33.600 and that may be the tradition in your family if 0:39:33.640 --> 0:39:37.040 you live out in the country, to start off your 0:39:37.160 --> 0:39:40.880 child with hunting squirrels with a little twenty two rifle 0:39:41.000 --> 0:39:45.360 or something as practice to teach young hunters. I'm certainly 0:39:45.440 --> 0:39:46.800 not into that, but I'm not going to judge you 0:39:46.840 --> 0:39:48.919 if that's your thing. And like I said, people still 0:39:48.960 --> 0:39:55.160 do eat squirrel in certain parts of the United States today. 0:39:55.280 --> 0:39:56.920 I guess we can talk. I mean, we found a 0:39:56.920 --> 0:39:58.240 lot of extra fun stuff. 0:40:00.040 --> 0:40:00.600 Let's talk about. 0:40:00.640 --> 0:40:03.440 So we were talking about how they're viewed in America. 0:40:04.440 --> 0:40:06.480 Depending on where you are in the world, depending on 0:40:06.520 --> 0:40:08.960 the squirrel you're talking about, they're actually they can be 0:40:09.040 --> 0:40:12.719 viewed quite negatively. I remember in our Rewilding episode we 0:40:12.760 --> 0:40:16.200 talked about how Eastern gray squirrels are considered an invasive 0:40:16.239 --> 0:40:21.560 species in Italy, where they call them Americans killer squirrels. 0:40:22.560 --> 0:40:25.760 And there's also an issue with Eastern gray squirrels in Europe, 0:40:25.840 --> 0:40:29.400 where they've killed off most of the Eurasian red squirrels 0:40:29.440 --> 0:40:33.200 over there. They've just out competed them. It's not like 0:40:33.239 --> 0:40:36.399 they've you know, choked them or anything like that. They 0:40:36.600 --> 0:40:39.879 just they're like almost twice as big, they're a lot 0:40:39.920 --> 0:40:44.120 more ornery, and they've just kind of diminished the number 0:40:44.200 --> 0:40:47.759 of Eurasian red squirrels in the UK so much so 0:40:47.840 --> 0:40:51.640 that three quarters of the population lives in Scotland. And 0:40:52.280 --> 0:40:55.480 I would just like to direct everybody to the Scottish 0:40:55.520 --> 0:41:01.160 Squirrel's website. Go to Scottish Squirrels dot org UK and 0:41:01.239 --> 0:41:04.440 this is very important. Slash about and on their about 0:41:04.480 --> 0:41:08.480 page the header image is maybe the cutest squirrel you'll 0:41:08.480 --> 0:41:09.080 ever see. 0:41:08.920 --> 0:41:09.880 In your entire life. 0:41:09.960 --> 0:41:11.040 Is that the one you sent me? 0:41:11.080 --> 0:41:15.160 And Jerry, Yes, isn't that the cutest squirrel ever? 0:41:16.200 --> 0:41:19.279 It's pretty cute. You also sent something else. If you 0:41:19.320 --> 0:41:23.760 go to RSPCA dot org dot UK, slash Advice and Welfare, 0:41:23.800 --> 0:41:29.520 slash wildlife, slash animals, slash gray squirrels, slash feeding, or 0:41:29.520 --> 0:41:31.960 you could just Google feeding squirrels and using nest boxes, 0:41:32.000 --> 0:41:34.000 you're gonna see a squirrel with a chicken wing in 0:41:34.040 --> 0:41:34.480 its mouth. 0:41:35.920 --> 0:41:36.600 That's pretty good. 0:41:37.320 --> 0:41:39.520 It's better than a bass eating a squirrel, I'll tell 0:41:39.560 --> 0:41:39.959 you that. 0:41:40.960 --> 0:41:42.759 Yeah, that's a good article you sent because it talks 0:41:42.760 --> 0:41:45.680 about if you like squirrels around, which I certainly do, 0:41:45.719 --> 0:41:49.600 creating a good habitat for them. Trees obviously it is 0:41:49.640 --> 0:41:52.239 a good thing to have. Not cutting down trees is 0:41:52.239 --> 0:41:55.000 a great thing to do if you can avoid it. Yeah, 0:41:55.040 --> 0:41:58.880 And then having squirrel safe bird feeders. And this means 0:41:59.280 --> 0:42:01.520 not that the squirrel can't get to that seed, because they, 0:42:01.640 --> 0:42:04.399 as you have attested, they will find a way. Life 0:42:04.440 --> 0:42:08.120 finds a way, but it don't won't trap the squirrel 0:42:08.160 --> 0:42:08.879 inside of it. 0:42:09.320 --> 0:42:12.400 No, that's a big one too. They also kind of 0:42:12.400 --> 0:42:16.480 get into they get all Macbeth or Hamlet, which one 0:42:16.600 --> 0:42:17.480 was to be or not to be? 0:42:19.360 --> 0:42:20.279 Why you asking me? 0:42:20.960 --> 0:42:23.840 Because they get all Hamlet or Macbeth on whether or 0:42:23.920 --> 0:42:30.319 not to feed squirrels. You go, so they're like, you 0:42:30.400 --> 0:42:33.400 could feed squirrels, but really you shouldn't. And the RSPCA 0:42:33.560 --> 0:42:37.440 takes I think a pretty sensible tact, which is build 0:42:37.440 --> 0:42:39.520 a habitat for the squirrels, and that you're planting the 0:42:39.600 --> 0:42:41.640 right kind of trees that provide a place for them 0:42:41.719 --> 0:42:43.600 to nest in a place for them to get food, 0:42:43.680 --> 0:42:45.759 and then just step back and enjoy them. 0:42:45.880 --> 0:42:46.640 That's right enough. 0:42:46.960 --> 0:42:49.279 If you're like you know, me and Moe and you 0:42:49.320 --> 0:42:51.080 go on walks or whatever and you want to feed 0:42:51.080 --> 0:42:53.640 the squirrels, there are some things that are better for 0:42:53.719 --> 0:42:56.440 squirrels than others, and it's basically you want to give 0:42:56.480 --> 0:43:01.080 them what they would naturally eat, which is masked, unshelled 0:43:01.160 --> 0:43:05.600 nuts like walnuts, chestnuts, acorns, hazel nuts, that kind of thing. 0:43:05.719 --> 0:43:08.040 Some seats probably, huh. 0:43:07.719 --> 0:43:10.279 Yes, but not black safflower seeds. I saw that if 0:43:10.320 --> 0:43:12.320 you were one of those people who can't stand squirrels 0:43:12.400 --> 0:43:17.680 raiding your bird feeder, black safflower seeds are. They'll eat them, 0:43:17.719 --> 0:43:20.960 but they're not crazy about them, and most birds like 0:43:21.120 --> 0:43:24.120 them instead. So that's one way to do it. But 0:43:24.160 --> 0:43:26.839 you can also feed them vegetables too, and chuck. They 0:43:26.840 --> 0:43:30.080 included this little tip that I didn't realize, but if 0:43:30.120 --> 0:43:32.600 you're feeding squirrels or leaving food out for squirrels in 0:43:32.600 --> 0:43:34.400 your yard and you have a garden that you care about, 0:43:34.840 --> 0:43:36.719 you don't really want the squirrel taking the food and 0:43:36.719 --> 0:43:39.080 them burying it. Elsewhere. So they said, if you're going 0:43:39.120 --> 0:43:43.600 to feed them fruits and vegetables shredded, because the squirrels 0:43:43.680 --> 0:43:44.920 is going to eat it there, it's not going to 0:43:44.960 --> 0:43:45.680 try to bury it. 0:43:45.760 --> 0:43:46.760 I thought that was smart. 0:43:46.920 --> 0:43:48.879 Yeah, And if you have the nuts, don't give them 0:43:49.280 --> 0:43:55.040 like honey roasted almonds, like unsweetened, unsalted stuff. I have 0:43:55.120 --> 0:43:57.480 set up, you know, have a campcam at the family 0:43:57.520 --> 0:44:01.160 camp trail cam, and it's it's keyed in on my 0:44:01.360 --> 0:44:05.440 deer feeder that I got, which is corn. And I've 0:44:05.480 --> 0:44:09.320 seen one deer, but almost every night I have scores 0:44:09.360 --> 0:44:13.080 of raccoons nice and almost every day, well every day 0:44:13.440 --> 0:44:19.040 I have squirrels, crows, and now daily turkeys visiting. Oh 0:44:19.239 --> 0:44:22.640 neat lots and lots of turkeys. So I don't care 0:44:22.680 --> 0:44:25.040 that the deer aren't visiting. It's all kinds of animals 0:44:25.040 --> 0:44:26.640 are coming around. It's always fun to watch on the 0:44:26.640 --> 0:44:27.080 camp cam. 0:44:27.480 --> 0:44:29.759 That is very cool. One thing you want to be 0:44:29.800 --> 0:44:33.560 careful with with peanuts too, is giving them raw peanuts 0:44:33.600 --> 0:44:38.640 because peanuts can carry an aff litoxin, which is very 0:44:39.360 --> 0:44:41.480 It's not good. It's not good for squirrels, it's not 0:44:41.520 --> 0:44:44.480 good for humans either. It's a type of fungus. I 0:44:44.480 --> 0:44:48.080 think that actually is not only carcin carcina just that 0:44:48.160 --> 0:44:52.200 can actually like just kill you on the spot neurologically speaking. 0:44:52.719 --> 0:44:57.120 So you actually want roasted peanuts but not salted or 0:44:57.160 --> 0:45:02.560 anything like that, sow like plain roasted peanuts or what's 0:45:02.600 --> 0:45:05.280 even better because it helps with their teeth, are mass 0:45:05.360 --> 0:45:08.279 nuts again like pecans, walnuts, that kind of stuff. But 0:45:08.440 --> 0:45:10.560 a lot of people say don't feed squirrels because you're 0:45:10.600 --> 0:45:13.960 actually what you're doing is, as we've seen, if squirrels 0:45:14.000 --> 0:45:15.279 know that there's a lot of food. 0:45:15.040 --> 0:45:17.239 They're going to mate mate mate mate, and. 0:45:17.200 --> 0:45:18.879 There's going to be a lot of squirrels, and they're 0:45:18.920 --> 0:45:23.400 going to become dependent on that additional food supply, and 0:45:23.680 --> 0:45:25.799 they might start showing up at your neighbor's house, they 0:45:25.840 --> 0:45:29.160 might start burrowing into your attic. There's just a lot 0:45:29.160 --> 0:45:33.279 of there's a lot of things that to take into consideration. 0:45:33.400 --> 0:45:35.880 I guess, yeah, well, the family camp, there's nothing but 0:45:35.920 --> 0:45:37.760 would so I hope we get overrun. 0:45:38.520 --> 0:45:41.200 So I agree with you. So you've found a couple 0:45:41.200 --> 0:45:45.200 of cool things, including why squirrels like seem to dash 0:45:45.400 --> 0:45:47.400 in front of your car when you're driving. 0:45:47.600 --> 0:45:51.600 Right, Yeah, So and again I love that we've just 0:45:51.600 --> 0:45:53.719 finally found answers for this stuff, because this is kind 0:45:53.719 --> 0:45:57.239 of a fun, non obnoxious fact to jump on to 0:45:57.320 --> 0:46:01.719 drop on someone. If you're driving around a neighborhood and 0:46:01.760 --> 0:46:03.640 the squirrel does that thing and people go, why do 0:46:03.719 --> 0:46:06.279 squirrels do that, we can say, well, it's actually an 0:46:06.280 --> 0:46:11.319 evolutionary instinct to get away from a predator. So if 0:46:11.360 --> 0:46:15.040 you run out and you initially freeze when there's a predator, 0:46:15.760 --> 0:46:18.480 the predator is sort of like a football player waiting 0:46:18.880 --> 0:46:21.839 for the defensive player to make their move, and then 0:46:21.920 --> 0:46:24.680 you go the opposite way with a little juke, And 0:46:24.680 --> 0:46:27.160 that's what the squirrel's doing. They go out, they freeze 0:46:27.200 --> 0:46:29.960 when they see that car, and if it was a predator, 0:46:30.000 --> 0:46:31.680 they would wait on the predator to sort of make 0:46:31.680 --> 0:46:33.799 a move and then they can quickly go in a 0:46:33.840 --> 0:46:37.680 direction that really comes in handy when it's a predator. 0:46:37.719 --> 0:46:40.040 When it's a car that's going, you know, generally in 0:46:40.040 --> 0:46:43.560 a big, hulking straight line, it's not the same thing. 0:46:43.600 --> 0:46:45.840 But a squirrel has a squirrel brain and it doesn't 0:46:45.840 --> 0:46:49.399 realize that. So that's why a squirrel will jump out 0:46:49.400 --> 0:46:51.560 in a street, see a car and just stop They're 0:46:51.600 --> 0:46:55.080 not dumb. They're waiting on you to make some hawk 0:46:55.239 --> 0:46:58.719 like move, which doesn't happen in the car. So what 0:46:58.800 --> 0:47:02.080 you do is you just slow down and check your 0:47:02.120 --> 0:47:03.880 rearview mirror. Don't see him on the brakes or anything. 0:47:03.920 --> 0:47:07.839 But you know, they're everywhere. And I've hit I think 0:47:07.880 --> 0:47:11.279 maybe two squirrels in my adult life, so it's not 0:47:11.400 --> 0:47:13.760 like the most common thing to run over a squirrel. 0:47:14.520 --> 0:47:16.480 Yeah, I ran over one once and my brother in 0:47:16.560 --> 0:47:19.040 law said that he was on his way to buy 0:47:19.040 --> 0:47:22.160 a birthday present for his young kid who was waiting 0:47:22.239 --> 0:47:24.880 forever for their dad to come back for his birthday 0:47:25.040 --> 0:47:26.120 present for his party. 0:47:26.600 --> 0:47:28.200 Yeah, it was not helpful. 0:47:30.200 --> 0:47:33.399 And what about these black squirrels. Emily and I were 0:47:33.440 --> 0:47:37.520 taking a walk through Brooklyn one day and saw a black, black, 0:47:37.560 --> 0:47:40.600 black squirrel, not just a hint of black, and it 0:47:40.680 --> 0:47:42.359 was the coolest thing I've ever seen. And I've since 0:47:42.400 --> 0:47:44.480 seen a few more here and there in New York. 0:47:44.600 --> 0:47:46.560 And we had the answer there too, right. 0:47:48.480 --> 0:47:52.759 Yes, they seemed to be so they used to think 0:47:52.760 --> 0:47:55.640 that they were freaks of nature. I think, as one 0:47:56.520 --> 0:47:59.839 naturalist put it, like years and years ago, and somebody said, 0:48:00.040 --> 0:48:01.880 I don't know if that's true. I think these actually 0:48:01.920 --> 0:48:05.799 might have been the dominant version. They seem to be 0:48:05.840 --> 0:48:09.359 closely related to Eastern grays, if not just a type 0:48:09.360 --> 0:48:11.839 of Eastern gray, like a different breed of that species. 0:48:12.880 --> 0:48:15.759 But they were saying they used to possibly be the 0:48:15.760 --> 0:48:19.280 dominant version and they got edged out by the Eastern gray, 0:48:19.719 --> 0:48:24.560 and so's they're there, they're just kind of infrequently. They 0:48:24.600 --> 0:48:29.040 infrequently appear, but there are parts of North America where 0:48:29.040 --> 0:48:31.800 they seem to populate more than others, like New York. 0:48:32.440 --> 0:48:35.480 You mean, I used to see them in DC, Toronto. 0:48:35.560 --> 0:48:39.239 They're all over Toronto, in Ontario in general, from what 0:48:39.320 --> 0:48:42.560 I understand. So it seems like from what I could tell, 0:48:42.600 --> 0:48:45.640 that they think that they're they were there already and 0:48:45.719 --> 0:48:47.440 now we're just kind of seeing them in like this 0:48:47.520 --> 0:48:51.480 kind of moment in time where their numbers have diminished tremendously, 0:48:51.480 --> 0:48:53.640 where if we went back in time we might see 0:48:53.680 --> 0:48:55.680 a lot more. Is Does that seem accurate? 0:48:56.040 --> 0:48:58.920 Yeah? I mean, it's just genetics. It's a recessive gene 0:48:58.960 --> 0:49:03.839 that causes an ab normal pigmentation, and you will you know, 0:49:03.920 --> 0:49:06.320 you're you're only going to get more of that recessive gene. 0:49:06.640 --> 0:49:11.520 If these squirrels or any you know, creature is reproducing 0:49:11.680 --> 0:49:14.000 in a in a smaller area. So if you've got 0:49:14.040 --> 0:49:17.640 to contain population, like let's say an island like New 0:49:17.719 --> 0:49:21.919 York or apparently Roosevelt Island has a lot of them, Yeah, 0:49:22.400 --> 0:49:25.840 you're just gonna see more of them. So, uh, DC 0:49:26.280 --> 0:49:29.359 is a little not inexplicable, but it makes more sense 0:49:29.360 --> 0:49:32.480 in New York because you're just gonna get more, you know, 0:49:33.360 --> 0:49:36.879 more of this recessive gene happening in a area. 0:49:37.520 --> 0:49:39.040 So not at all my explanation. 0:49:39.120 --> 0:49:42.759 Then, no, it's your explanation. Now you nailed it. And 0:49:42.800 --> 0:49:46.200 this was an article the Mysterious Black Squirrels of NYC 0:49:46.600 --> 0:49:49.160 from what turns out to be a really good website 0:49:49.200 --> 0:49:52.600 called Untapped Cities dot com and writer Michelle Young. It's 0:49:52.640 --> 0:49:53.480 it's really cool read. 0:49:55.040 --> 0:49:58.360 Yeah, so you got anything else on squirrels? 0:49:58.400 --> 0:50:00.960 Nothing and hug a squirrel, Embrace the squirrel. 0:50:01.400 --> 0:50:04.279 But don't do that. Don't if you do feed them, 0:50:04.280 --> 0:50:05.279 don't don't let them. 0:50:05.200 --> 0:50:06.040 Meet out of your hand. 0:50:06.239 --> 0:50:09.719 Yeah, because they'll bite you. Even though they're grateful. There's 0:50:09.800 --> 0:50:14.440 still bidy. And since I said that, everybody, it's time 0:50:14.480 --> 0:50:15.400 for listener mail. 0:50:18.360 --> 0:50:20.799 That's right, And It's a great listener mail because we 0:50:20.840 --> 0:50:24.920 get to say hello to a kindergarten class, which is 0:50:24.920 --> 0:50:30.600 always fun. Hello, Hi, mister Chuck and mister Josh. My 0:50:30.680 --> 0:50:34.399 name is Katie. It's either Fink or Finky, and I'm 0:50:34.480 --> 0:50:37.160 emailing with my kindergarten class in Baltimore City. We sometimes 0:50:37.160 --> 0:50:39.399 listen to your show, and we were so excited when 0:50:39.400 --> 0:50:42.000 you heard you mentioned the Three Sisters in the recent 0:50:42.040 --> 0:50:45.160 watermelon episode. We actually spent a whole weekend learning about 0:50:45.160 --> 0:50:48.160 the three Sisters this fall and wanted to share with 0:50:48.200 --> 0:50:50.880 you our excitement. We hope you do a short stuff 0:50:50.880 --> 0:50:53.840 on them soon. We definitely will if you need some 0:50:53.920 --> 0:50:57.880 Three Sisters experts. We want to tell you these facts 0:50:57.880 --> 0:51:00.400 that we learned this year. Oh yes, and here's a 0:51:00.400 --> 0:51:03.840 little short list. Native Americans would plant fish first in 0:51:03.880 --> 0:51:06.000 the ground to prepare the soil and make it healthy 0:51:06.040 --> 0:51:10.279 and rich. Love that the corn grows so tall it 0:51:10.320 --> 0:51:14.360 holds up the beans, and the squash keeps the soil moist, 0:51:14.920 --> 0:51:17.719 so the other two sisters have enough water to stay hydrated. 0:51:18.280 --> 0:51:21.400 And finally, all three of the sisters are dried so 0:51:21.480 --> 0:51:23.520 that people can save them to eat later in the winter, 0:51:23.600 --> 0:51:27.320 which is a great benefit, So we really want to 0:51:27.320 --> 0:51:29.080 share our knowledge in case you do a short stuff 0:51:29.280 --> 0:51:34.680 thanks for reading, love Miss Finkies or Miss Fink's kindergarten class. 0:51:35.640 --> 0:51:39.040 And like I said, this is in Baltimore City. 0:51:39.040 --> 0:51:42.200 Man, that's really impressive. Like I remember in kindergarten, I 0:51:42.239 --> 0:51:45.680 was learning Red Red. 0:51:47.719 --> 0:51:48.160 Red. 0:51:50.000 --> 0:51:53.040 I wasn't learning about the three sisters and groundcovers like 0:51:53.200 --> 0:51:55.839 keeping them moisture in place for the other two. I mean, 0:51:55.880 --> 0:52:01.920 come on, that's really impressive this week. I think it 0:52:02.000 --> 0:52:03.080 was more like that month. 0:52:04.239 --> 0:52:07.240 February is red month. Right, Oh that's great. 0:52:07.960 --> 0:52:10.920 Well, thank you Miss fink or Finkey's class. 0:52:11.080 --> 0:52:12.200 Hats off to you guys. 0:52:12.280 --> 0:52:15.080 Keep it up, and yes, we will definitely do a 0:52:15.120 --> 0:52:18.720 Three Sisters episode someday dedicated to you guys, right. 0:52:18.640 --> 0:52:19.680 Chuck for sure. 0:52:20.239 --> 0:52:22.000 If you want to get in touch with us, you 0:52:22.200 --> 0:52:29.160 can too via email at stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. 0:52:29.320 --> 0:52:32.200 Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For 0:52:32.280 --> 0:52:36.480 more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:52:36.600 --> 0:52:38.440 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.