Some kids in a remote village are busy using the catapult to hunt down squirrels. This is not a game. Nor is the squirrel killed for food. But these kids are hunting squirrels so that the tail could be turned into painters’ brushes. Our closest wild neighbour is a squirrel and each morning we see it rushing around in the gallery trying to find bits of breakfast leftovers that we had consumed out there.
There are about 285 species of squirrels found in the world and in India alone — where most assume the existence of two or three species — there are 28 species of squirrel found, which constitutes about 10 per cent of the world population. The commonly found squirrel is called the palm squirrel: The ones in south India are the three striped palm squirrel while in the north we have five striped palm squirrel. I got the opportunity to visit Namdapha tiger reserve in Arunachal Pradesh recently, and read some information chart, which stated that there are seven diurnal and seven nocturnal species in this area alone!
Squirrel belongs to an order of mammals called rodentia, which includes all the rodents. Rodents are those animals, which have two pairs of front teeth in the upper and lower jaws, called the incisors, which grow continuously. Squirrels keep them short by gnawing, biting or chewing.
Try giving the squirrel some peanuts — with and without shell. The animal will prefer the shelled nuts and eats in its precise posture. Squirrels cannot digest cellulose; their major diet is proteins, carbohydrate and fats. Usually, they survive on nuts and fruits but some eat insects and hunt down chicks. Squirrels are generally intelligent and persistent animals and find new ways to look out for food.
Some squirrels breed twice a year and the young ones are born toothless and blind. The squirrels’ nest is called a drey, which is made by collecting fur, cloth pieces and grasses to make it soft and warm. They mature in a year’s time. There are two types of species: Ground dwelling and tree dwelling. The ground dwelling ones are social animals and the tree dwelling ones are solitary animals. In Maharashtra, the big squirrel, Indian giant squirrel, has been given the status of the state animal of Maharashtra. Althoug giant squirrels are not capable of powered flight like birds or bats, they are capable of gliding between trees. A maximum of 90-metre flight has been recorded. The squirrels do not have any wings but have skin from wrist to ankle, which expands like a parachute and helps them glide.
Squirrel is a safe neighbour: Almost no chance of getting any rabies type diseases from them. But they can be mischievous and, thus, create problems. An adventurous squirrel brought down the functioning of the NASDAQ stock market by chewing away the power supply wires, which stopped the trading for 82 minutes leading to at least 20 million share trade being put on hold that day and caused many setbacks for the traders. Perhaps, this squirrel is the only one that caused maximum damage to the human kind by squirrel community.
Some people also keep them as pets and in the northeast they are also consumed: One can see them being sold in the food markets openly. If you do care for these mischievous creatures, the least that you could do is ask for a synthetic paintbrush next time.
(The writer is a conservation biologist at Tiger Watch, Ranthambore)
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