Celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day Every Year on January 21
Background by Yana Ray @ Public Domain Pictures
Squirrels get a bad rap. Let’s give them a break for Squirrel Appreciation Day.
Sure, they steal food from the birds. Leave acorns and other nuts scattered across your lawn. And just generally act like little nuisances.
But they’re really quite cute. Not to mention smart and resourceful.
Seriously.
They tease the cat from a couple feet away … because they know he can’t get out the window/door. And forget about those “squirrel-proof” bird feeders. They’re not.
These entertaining critters can learn quite easily to come and be hand-fed. We’ve done this. But we don’t recommend it (they are wild animals, after all).
And they’re not necessarily good at sharing food:
Wildlife rehabilitator Christy Hargrove started Squirrel Appreciation Day in 2001.
Interesting Squirrel Facts
Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae. Worldwide there are more than 300 species, and they live on almost every continent.
They come in a variety of colors: common gray, but also black, reddish-brown and even an orange kind of color.
Those big, fluffy tails helps with balance, and it can act as something of a parachute if they do fall.
They communicate with their tails, too.
A group of squirrels is a “scurry.”
Their teeth keep growing all the time. If they didn’t wear them down by chewing, they’d get about six inches longer every year.
Squirrels regularly cause power outages:
- In January 2015, a squirrel inspecting a substation caused some 4500 people to lose power in Forest Park, Ohio.
- Squirrels disrupted power to the University of South Florida twice in two days in December 2014.
- Another squirrel visiting a substation in Lewiston, Maine affected power for around 6,200 people in October, 2014.
- And 3,000 people in Northern Virginia lost power because of a curious squirrel in September 2012. This story also points out that squirrels are responsible for power outages more often than you might think.
A mother squirrel will sometimes adopt closely related orphaned babies as her own.
Squirrels can find the food they bury because they lick it before burying it. Later they can smell that scent even when covered with snow. But they still don’t necessarily find everything they’ve “squirreled” away.
Learn more about squirrels at about-squirrels.com.
Scroll down for some ideas on celebrating this unofficial holiday.
Celebrating Squirrel Appreciation Day
Since it’s winter and food can be hard to come by (yes, even for the resourceful squirrel), put out some extra food for your furry (and sometimes infuriating) backyard visitors. Good choices include:
- Stale bread
- Field corn
- A pinecone smeared with peanut butter
Watch a squirrelly movie. Maybe The Nut Job?
Read a squirrelly book. Consider Squirrels at My Window by Grace Marmor Spruch. For kids, there’s The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel by Thornton W. Burgess.
Check out the Squirrel Lover’s Club to find other people who love squirrels!
If you’re feeling really creative, set up an obstacle course similar to this:
How will you be spending Squirrel Appreciation Day this year?
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