Ah, thank you! This is something that’s been driving me crazy for a few years now. When I grew up in San Francisco, I don’t remember seeing any crows ever. I don’t even remember seeing them much if at all in my early 20’s. Now when I go back there I see them all the time. I’ve been wondering if it was a matter of me not noticing them when I was a kid because I was unobservant or if it was a matter of them having moved into the area more recently.
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Yes, but there were green spaces in some urban areas before that. For example Harvard Yard originally (and technically still does) let professors graze cows there, for about the past 300 years or so, and Boston Common has been a park since 1634. I’d guess (based on nothing) it might be more likely that urban green spaces mostly disappeared with industrialization, then reappeared in the form of public parks.
I put an aftermarket cage around our tube style bird feeder and the squirrels simply gave up. I was sort of disappointed.
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Indeed. I visited my cousin in Japan a few years ago, and they had a sizable tanuki (racoon dog) population where we stayed. They were too tame. You could just sit out back with a handful of slimjims and wait for one to come up and take it from your hand.
I was tempted to try to explain how that type of interaction is terrible for wildlife as it blunts their fear of humans and conditions them to consider humans as a food dispenser.
My personal philosophy is to leave animals alone, enjoy them from a comfortable distance, and keep all food and garbage out of their reach. It’s what I was taught as a Boy Scout, it makes sense to me from my own understanding of ecology and conservation, and it seems to minimize the impact animals and humans have on each other.
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I just remembered that squirrels were considered good eating historically.
My personal aversion to the idea stems from my knowledge that they’re essentially rats with a bushy tail, and that they can carry hantavirus. They also eat garbage where I live, so I’d expect the meat would have a foul taste as well.
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I have not been a small game hunter, but while skinning a rabbit is supposed to be as easy as taking off your socks, skinning a squirrel is more like chipping paint. I’m sure it’s easy with enough practice.
You don’t have to rip a hole in the eaves to make a winter nest in the attic. You could just enter your house through the front door and go up the stairs to the attic. Or you could just migrate to a warmer clime.
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Hunting squirrels in the Midwest was considered normal in the 19th century. They even had small caliber squirrel rifles1.
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I take pictures of squirrels. They aren’t particularly exotic, but they make an enjoyable enough target. Making them look like “adorable little scamps” requires some effort, and therefore gives some pleasure,though I much prefer photographing waterfowl.
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Or if you have two people doing it:
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