zaichka
03-10-2020, 12:10 PM
We have been feeding nuts to local squirrels for about 2 years now, and have several which have become surprisingly tame. They even seem to respond to my wife's calling them by names she gave to certain ones. So it has been with great disappointment and concern to have noticed, in the past 2 weeks, a fairly rapid disappearance of ALL the ones that were previously coming to be fed. We have considered various explanations, including the natural ones, such as (1) too many hawks in the area, or (2) they're busy with reproduction and baby-tending; and the more disturbing ones such as (3) they're getting a fatal viral disease, or (4) someone is trapping them, or (5) poisoning them.
Here one observation which, although it may be an isolated case, makes us worry about the disease or poisoning explanations. Last weekend we observed a squirrel sitting at the base of one of their usual large trees, and acting unresponsive. Later we saw one perched on the tree trunk farther up, but also acting uncharacteristically unresponsive. I watched with binoculars and saw the squirrel's eyes only partially open, sometimes closing, and just looking very drowsy. This all seemed very abnormal, as squirrels are usually the epitome of alertness when they're up and about.
Another observation which may not be related, but is suspicious: Birds that used to come for seeds seemed to have disappeared also. We had blue jays, cardinals, doves, and others, and we didn't favor birds or squirrels over each other, we fed both.
How should we interpret all this? It is very saddening, because we really loved seeing them every day.
Here one observation which, although it may be an isolated case, makes us worry about the disease or poisoning explanations. Last weekend we observed a squirrel sitting at the base of one of their usual large trees, and acting unresponsive. Later we saw one perched on the tree trunk farther up, but also acting uncharacteristically unresponsive. I watched with binoculars and saw the squirrel's eyes only partially open, sometimes closing, and just looking very drowsy. This all seemed very abnormal, as squirrels are usually the epitome of alertness when they're up and about.
Another observation which may not be related, but is suspicious: Birds that used to come for seeds seemed to have disappeared also. We had blue jays, cardinals, doves, and others, and we didn't favor birds or squirrels over each other, we fed both.
How should we interpret all this? It is very saddening, because we really loved seeing them every day.