Squirrel Migrations

I can't let the squirrel topic drop. A long time ago I read an article in Nature on Easter Gray Squirrels that mentioned how in the past great migrations of squirrels had been reported. I've done some research today on this topic and found a lot of facts.


Today, squirrel migrations are a rare phenomenon. They appear to occur when times of extra high nut production are quickly followed by very low nut production. The last referenced occurrence I could find of a mass migration was 1968 in the Eastern US. During the 1800s, when there were more hard wood forests, squirrel migration were more prevalent. Merriweather Lewis (of Lewis and Clark) reported seeing a migration in Ohio in 1803. Other reports of mass migrations occurred in 1809, 1811, 1819, 1842, 1847, 1852, and 1856.


A main source of information for this post was www.scarysquirel.org; the internet can make you feel so much better about yourself, there's always someone nuttier, or more squirrel obsessed than you.

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