We have three species of squirrels here at the ranch–the cheeky and arboreal Fox and Grey squirrels, and the evil and destructive Ground squirrels.
The Eastern Grays don’t live here, but are instead occasional visitors, mainly because our Fox squirrel family have claimed the space as their own. We have just one single pair of adult Fox squirrels and twice a year they produce one to three pups. I am pretty sure their presence deters the Grey squirrels from setting up shop, but that’s ok because the Fox squirrels have also become our enforcers and are more than happy to chase off any Ground squirrels that venture near the main house. This is a good thing, as those dirty little buggers (think sand-colored rats with slightly fluffy tails) are very destructive. They create underground burrows and tunnels wherever they set up shop, and in the rainy seasons they pull back and rats are prone to move in. This is on top of eating any pretty flowers or shrubs, and woe to whoever accidentally steps into a burrow mouth and twists their ankle.
They do provide for a few interesting photographic moments though.
We have managed to keep the Ground squirrels from living near the house as demarcated by the house yard fence. This is basically a square with one corner lopped off, as it is defined by the white house yard gate and fencing that surrounds the main house and old stables. You can get a good idea of that area in the image below. Making Ground squirrels stay away has been mainly the work of Agent Smith and his handy .22 pellet gun. Yep, that’s right, we kill Ground squirrels BUT–and this is a big but–we rarely have to do so now. It seems the rodents are fairly smart and understand where they are not welcome. As a result, only a handful have had to be removed from service in the last few years. Many readers will now probably be aghast and think badly of us, but if you haven’t had a Ground squirrel burrow near your house’s foundation, you simply cannot judge us. Trust me, as I have had to deal with the ratty results and it is not pleasant. The best example I can give is the time a snap trap in the crawl space under the house was triggered and took off a rat’s leg. There was blood everywhere and we couldn’t actually find the rat, but two days later we could smell its rotting corpse. Ground squirrels are more than welcome to live elsewhere on the acreage; down in the south pasture is a happy spot for them, or out near our eastern neighbor’s skanky animal pens. We just don’t want them near the house, and so, in that war, we have reached a rather comfortable détente.
Now the Fox squirrels, on the other hand, are more than welcome and they are very cheeky, in a good way. While they venture into the garden areas, they don’t make a mess, and as drinking water is scarce here (we have three birdbaths up near the house), we just have the one family. In fact, we schedule any tree work for the late fall before their breeding season, as we don’t want to end up with pups that need whisking off to the local wildlife center because we disturbed their nest.
Back when I tested out some window seed feeders, this one soon figured out how to score a quick meal. (We no longer use these feeders, as they become bacterial breeding grounds way too easily.)
They are also very photogenic. Here’s a few images from over at stega.org.
