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| Looky Lou squirrel at my window. Mobile, Alabama. December 2021. Credit: Mzuriana. |
Mobile squirrels think they are something.
Not only are Mobile squirrels plentiful, they are kinda cocky, practically dashing across the sidewalk right in front of you in a show of no-fucks-given for your hominid-archical bullshit.
Researchers have classified four personality characteristics of squirrels that vary among individual squirrels:
- Boldness
- Aggressiveness
- Activity level
- Sociability
The researchers devised various tests to quantify where individual squirrels fell on a continuum of the traits. Any of us can conduct one of the tests:
In the third test, researchers quietly and slowly approached individuals in the wild to see how long it took for them to run away. This is a common way to determine an individual's shyness. [I will assume 'shyness' relates to the characteristic of 'boldness.']
As a group, I'd classify Mobilian squirrels to the far right end of the continuum of bold, along with a high activity level.
I lost a half hour of my life while researching for this post, which I shall never recoup, by watching the Backyard Squirrel Maze Ninja Course. It gave me many utils of pleasure, so it was time well misspent:
PBS' Nature series broadcast a one-hour documentary on squirrels in 2018. You can watch it in its entirety if you've got a Passport account. If you don't have a Passport, you can view several engaging snippets here.
In memorium
Recently, while on a neighborhood walk, I spied a dead squirrel. Laid out on a raised funereal dais created by a live oak's trunk arms that had surfaced from the loamy depths. Medium-size black ants, those avid morticians, bustled about the remains, performing their organic rituals.
I admit to a fascination with the squirrel's tiny lower jaw and teeth, a wishbone of delicate architecture. It is maddening that I cannot capture a photo in which both rows of the teeth are equally defined, despite numerous attempts.
Here's the best of a poor lot:
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| Lower jaw of dead squirrel. Mobile, Alabama. June 2022. Credit: Mzuriana. |
I have added the squirrel's jaw and its full corpus to my Carcass Collection here.
Related squirrel posts
2011: Louisiana Road Trip 2011, Part 1: Driving Day in Driving Rain (squirrels skittering)
2014: Lafayette, Louisiana: Sounds From My Place (squirrels barreling)
2015: Washington, Louisiana: Squirrel Cook-Off (Spoiler alert: It's not the squirrels doing the cooking)
2019: Tucson, Arizona: Temporary Home #2 (gregarious squirrels)
Oi.
Another 20 minutes of the finite resource which is my life - gone. Here. I don't begrudge the expenditure, however.
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