Squirrel Postcards From Russia

I just wanted to share these images of Russian squirrel postcards that I found online. I really don't know anything about them except that they date from the 1970s and 1980s. The Soviet Union couldn't have been ALL bad if they were turning out cards like these. Enjoy!

This one is my favorite.
I believe it says "Happy New Year"

Olney White Squirrel Population Dips

The town of Olney, Illinois has for decades been noted for its large population of white squirrels. There are competing stories of the origin of the squirrels, but the community has adopted them as a source of pride and a local tourist attraction. The city has set up squirrel crossing signs and has even  passed laws to protect the rodents by prohibiting cat owners from allowing their pets to roam free, and forbidding anyone from taking a white squirrel out of the city.

Unfortunately, over the years the white squirrel population has dropped steadily from a high of over 800 in 1941. And it seems that this decline may now be accelerating. Every year a local college conducts a white squirrel count, and this year's count, in October, found only 80 white squirrels in the town, a drop of about 25 percent from the previous year. While it is not clear that any single cause is entirely to blame, a city official has suggested that the extreme hot and dry weather of the past year could be a major factor.

Residents of the city are being encouraged to put out food and water for the squirrels, plant fruit and nut trees, put up squirrel houses, and to avoid cutting down existing trees during the season when baby squirrels are in their nests. Residents are also asked to obey squirrel crossing zones and laws prohibiting free-roaming cats and dogs.

Please help us!

Olney is one of a few places in North America that has a population of white squirrels. The News For Squirrels hopes that the residents of the town will do whatever it takes to protect this treasure.

(Just a note: both of the articles linked in this post mistakenly identify these squirrels as albino. These white squirrels are not true albinos, as you can see from the dark eyes in the photo above)

Theodore Roosevelt and the Flying Squirrels

Theodore Roosevelt, unlike many of today's Republicans, was known for his conservationist views and his respect for nature and wildlife. He was instrumental in the creation of the National Parks system during his presidency, in the first decade of the twentieth century. Although some of his views, such as his love of big-game hunting, are frowned upon by modern environmentalists, for his time he was definitely progressive.

Roosevelt also liked to be surrounded by animals. During his presidency, his family had more animals at the White House than any other administration. The Roosevelt pets included a bear, a lizard, a macaw, several guinea pigs, a hyena, a pony, a badger, a pig, a hen and a rooster, two cats, and rat, a garter snake, and several dogs.

The Roosevelts had a rustic cabin called Pine Knot in Virginia, where they spent vacations during his presidency. One feature of the two-story cabin was a family of flying squirrels that nested in the rafters. President Roosevelt and his wife Edith were evidently fond of the squirrels, as he wrote in his autobiography,

We loved having flying squirrels among the rafters of our cabin. At night we slept so soundly that we did not in the least mind the wild gambols of the little fellows, even when they would swoop down to the bed and scuttle across it.

And a letter written by the president in 1908 shows just how charming and amusing the Roosevelts found the flying squirrels, even to the point of annoying at least one of their friends:

Mother and I had great fun at Pine Knot. Mr. Burroughs, whom I call Oom John, was with us and we greatly enjoyed having him. But one night he fell into great disgrace! The flying squirrels that were there last Christmas had raised a brood, having built a large nest inside of the room in which you used to sleep and in which John Burroughs slept. Of course they held high carnival at night-time. Mother and I do not mind them at all, and indeed rather like to hear them scrambling about, and then as a sequel to a sudden frantic fight between two of them, hearing or seeing one little fellow come plump down to the floor and scuttle off again to the wall. But one night they waked up John Burroughs and he spent a misguided hour hunting for the nest, and when he found it took it down and caught two of the young squirrels and put them in a basket. The next day under Mother's direction I took them out, getting my fingers somewhat bitten in the process, and loosed them in our room, where we had previously put back the nest. I do not think John Burroughs profited by his misconduct, because the squirrels were more active than ever that night both in his room and ours, the disturbance in their family affairs having evidently made them restless!

I suspect that this was the last time Mr. Burroughs accepted an invitation from President Roosevelt to stay at his cabin. But that was his loss!

Hi Teddy!

Longview, WA Celebrates Squirrels Today!

The town of Longview, WA is known for its fondness for squirrels. This statue occupies a prominent place in the town...

And the Nutty Narrows bridge, designed and erected years ago by a local businessman after he witnessed a squirrel being run over in the street, helps local squirrels cross a busy roadway in safety...

And today the town is holding its annual celebration in honor of its furry neighbors, Longview Squirrel Fest. This is an event that I truly wish I could attend, if it wasn't for the distance and lack of money! The annual celebration, started last year, offers a full daylong slate of fun activities, performances, food and drink, and demonstrations from vendors. And best of all, each year at Squirrel Fest a new squirrel bridge will be unveiled, all to make life safer and happier for the town's beloved squirrels.

And just in case anyone doubts whether the squirrels actually use the bridges, here's proof...

Rally Squirrel Featured On Cardinals' World Series Rings

This weekend the members of last years champion St. Louis Cardinals team received their World Series rings. Featured on the rings is an important unofficial member of that team, the Rally Squirrel. If you look between the St. Louis logo and the home plate superimposed on the two crossed bats, you can see the squirrel:

And here is the Rally Squirrel in action last fall:

If you are a baseball fan, you will remember that the squirrel, which had been first seen in the stadium by many fans in he previous day's game, ran across the field and briefly disrupted play during a Skip Schumaker at bat in game 4 of the Cardinals' National League Division Series against Philadelphia. At the time, St. Louis trailed the Phillies two games to one in the best-of-five series. When the Cards came back and won the division series, and then went on to take the World Series, the squirrel was credited by many as a good luck charm.

In addition to its place on the World Series ring, the squirrel is also featured on Cardinals outfielder Schumaker's 2012 Topps baseball card.

The Rally Squirrel was later trapped and taken to a refuge in the St. Louis area, where he or she is hopefully enjoying a comfortable retirement.

Squirrel Week Updates

Today in the Washington Post's Squirrel Week coverage is a fascinating article on Tommy Tucker, DC's most famous squirrel. Tommy was rescued as an orphaned infant by a couple and became a national celebrity (and famous cross-dresser) during the World War II era.

Tomorrow at 11am eastern time, John Kelly will be hosting an online question and answer session session with squirrel vocalization expert Robert Lishak. You can submit your questions about squirrel talk on the Post's web site.

18th Century Women and Their Squirrels

I ran across this interesting post about portraits of 18th Century American Women posing with squirrels. This seems to have been something of a fad at the time.

The author speculates about whether the squirrels are real, or are copied from emblem books and included in the portraits for some sort of symbolic purpose. It certainly seems likely that the squirrels were copied from books--just try getting a squirrel to sit still long enough for a portrait--it is also true that many among the upper class during this period were fascinated with the eastern gray squirrel. It was not uncommon to trap squirrels and keep them as pets. Benjamin Franklin was a squirrel enthusiast who even took squirrels with him to England to give as gifts to friends.

Of course, among the lower classes, particularly in rural areas, the gray squirrel was looked at more as a source of food than as a pet. It would be fascinating to make a more in-depth study of the relationship between the colonial-period Americans and the gray squirrel.

Squirrels In History: White House Squirrels

This is a new feature for this blog. Occasionally I will post a note about squirrels of the past taken from old newspaper or magazine accounts. It's amazing the kind of stuff you can find on Google.

The first item is from a November 7, 1912 article in the Rock Hill (SC) Herald. The headline is "Squirrels At White House Are Quite Tame." It describes the squirrels that lived on the White House grounds, which were in fact so tame that visitors

are expecting to see them do most anything that any well domesticated animal might do. They run across the President's front porch whenever they feel like it, paying no attention to the policemen there, burrow around the President's geraniums, play with each other about the drives, feed out of the hands of well-disposed persons, and on the whole seem to enjoy life much more than any living thing in the vicinity.

I'm not sure what was going on in the lives of the other living things in the vicinity, but it sounds like life was good for those White House squirrels!

Yes, life IS good!

By the way, although it is not mentioned in the article, the president at the time was William Howard Taft.

I like squirrels so much that I'm hiding one
in each nostril!

The article goes on to describe the squirrels' latest "stunt," climbing up the iron light poles and sitting on top of the glass globes. Scanning to the top of the newspaper page, we see that this article was a special interest story related to the top news of the day, Woodrow Wilson's landslide victory over Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 presidential election. So Taft's days in the White House were obviously numbered. Hopefully the election results didn't lead to any major changes in squirrel policy when Wilson moved in the following January.