Hello all,
I am so glad to finally decided to join the boards today. I had been reading the forums for quite a while now and at times I felt I should reply to some of the posts where I had some insight but for some reason or another it got delayed. I am here now and to stay.
I wanted to make certain informative posts about squirrels that are still not answered on the web. There are still certain myths around squirrel diet and mating/reproduction that also need further attention. I was reading the rules and was not sure when I will be able to make posts in general forums so decided to start here with a brief intro.
I have years of experience with squirrels which goes way beyond just rehabilitating and releasing them into the wild. There is so much we still do not know about these beautiful and intelligent creatures.
We moved to Virginia two years ago and before I could think of anything else, the squirrels in our backyard forest patch started to once again dominate my and my wife's daily life's. Presently, I have none in my care as we are planning to buy a house and then set up the required better facility to care for the injured and orphaned. I recently rehabbed a juvenile male squirrel that was injured by his peers soon after birth and was found dehydrated and unresponsive (This is my guess of what happened as we will never know the reality, but based on experience sometimes the very young ones can get a injured eye from claws of the other siblings or bigger squirrels). The good news is that we did that was needed and he was released as quickly as possible to have the best chance at survival in the wild, specially with one eye. He goes by the name "Ivan The Eyeless". We have named so many squirrel's in the past that we are running out of names so I decided to add a tag to his name inspired from Ivan The Cripple from the recent new TV Series on History "'Vikings" . I have attached a picture I took a week ago in our backyard while he grabbed a avocado to enjoy. He does get picked upon by the other squirrel's a bit more than usual but he is a true fighter with a unrelenting will to survive. He has adapted well to his one eye and I have not seen him make a mistake in sensing the depth between branches so far as he is chased or when he is just simply scouting.
I have taken tens of thousands of pictures and videos of squirrel's and other wildlife over the years and I am planning to put them up on some website for people to enjoy. So those are the plans for now in my non professional world.
I hope I can contribute to the community here in the best way possible in the coming years.
Glad to be here.