Food for: small to medium sized carnivores
Features: cute, playful, lively
Most wildscapers and children love them. Most gardeners and birders just hate them. President Theodore Roosevelt thought they were so cute that he kept two in the White House when he was president. They're small and harmless looking, but they'll gang up on you and snatch your lunch on some college campuses. Clever, mischevous, determined, fruitful, inquisitive, destructive, common and occasionally controversial, the squirrel is one of our most recognized and most interesting urban mammals.
Love them or hate them, the squirrel is here to stay. This week's article is for people who want to attract these charming little creatures to their yards and next week's article is for those people who want to keep the furry little monsters off their property.
There are over 360 species of squirrels or squirrel-like mammals throughout the world and they live on every continent except Australia and Antartica. The most common type of squirrel is the tree squirrel. These creatures are amazingly adaptable animals and thrive in the wild as well as in our cities. Squirrels and their cousins make up about 40% of all present day mammals -- so the rumor that squirrels are taking over the world may not be far off the mark after all!
In fact, it's reported that the largest concentration of squirrels in the United States is in Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C -- right across from the White House.
Wildscaping for squirrels is easy -- but only if you live in an older area of the city or some other place where there are mature trees with interlacing branches. Trees function as highways for squirrels -- and just as groups of humans find it hard to live in a place with no roads, so squirrels find it hard to live in a place that has very few large trees. In true forests one squirrel's territory may be as large as 7 acres and include several types of habitat. In an urban area, it can be one city block -- or even smaller.
As for food, non-urban squirrels eat mostly seeds and nuts and fruits. Urban squirrels like the ones in Lafayette Park, however, will eat just about anything -- including pizza, lunch meat, and chips -- and are very adept at raiding trash cans to get to the munchies. If given a choice, though, they'll go after
