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Cute, Bothersome Little
Creatures Some people poison them to keep the population down and others set traps that either break their neck, electrocute them, or capture them alive. I remember reading a few years back, how the city had a problem with them making holes in the city parks that could be hazardous to people walking. I believe the parks' people came up with a solution for their removal - a truck sized vacuum cleaner that sucked them right out of their holes. I don't know what they did with the little round-tails after they sucked them from their homes and I'm not sure I want to now that I've spent some quality time with a few of the families in my yard.
The first young round-tail I encountered this May was chirping loudly under a purple trailing lantana. Talk about attracting predators. The noise was bound to pull in a coyote or passing road runner. It finally quieted down and I kept an eye on it off and on to see if its mother showed up or it found its way home. No such luck. I located the dead animal not too far from where I'd discovered it the previous day. Over the next few days I kept seeing more and more very young round-tailed squirrels popping in and out of their nearby holes. Some were pretty fleet of foot while others seemed like they could barely maneuver back to their burrow. I had some spare time and grabbed my camera, a cushion from a lounge chair and found a shady spot under a mesquite tree near some of the squirrels' habit. I laid on the ground with my camera and began to observe. While I watched the round-tails and fought off the ants, they watched me. It wasn't too long before they did their thing while I did mine. And I got to admit some of the little guys had quite the personality. While the children played the mothers were never too far away, quick to let out a warning chirp where everyone would head to the bunker until the danger passed.
Over a period of days I noticed the number of young dwindled. Where there was once a family of three or four young, there was only one. They were too young to set off on their own just yet. Then one morning I watched from the distance as a mature round-tail started making all kinds of noise and was running back and forth its tail very stiff and animated. My curiosity got the best of me and I had to go check things out. What I found right next to one of the burrows was a very healthy looking four- foot gopher snake. It had a nice yellowish color as if it had recently shed its skin. I managed to direct the snake in another direction, but I knew it would be back to find itself a meal or two. After the snake's visit I began to notice that the round-tails were moving to different burrows. They'd bury one entrance and make a new one. A few days later they'd cover up the last one they used and move to another. No wonder there were so many holes in my yard. They were constantly making new ones possibly to confuse the predators. I found signs of some of the round-tailed squirrel's demise. I'd spotted a mature round-tail in the talons of a Cooper's hawk. I'd witnessed a youngster dangling from the beak of a road runner and I'd found body parts. Life's tough on the little animals and I certainly didn't need to make it any tougher on them by trying to trap them or worse, baiting their tunnels with poison. Their population would certainly get whittled down over the next couple of months.
I don't particularly feel sorry for the round-tailed squirrels and their location on the food chain. In fact I was somewhat stunned one day when I watched a mature round-tail run over to a quail block and grab a young finch by the neck and kill it before it dragged it back to its hole in the ground. I had no idea the little plant and seed eaters were carnivorous, too. It was enough to give me nightmares. (2009) |
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