On January 21st, Squirrel Appreciation Days recognizes a critter some consider a pest, and others see as fascinating.
There are two species of squirrel here in the UK, the grey and the red. The red is our native species and has lived here for around 10,000 years, Grey squirrels were introduced from North America by the Victorians in the 1800s.
Fewer than 287,000 red squirrels remain in the UK, says the Red Squirrel Survival Trust. Visit their ‘website‘ for more information and how to help.
As a child, we only ever saw red ones. It wasn’t till the eighties and nineties that I saw the grey ones. The two cannot live together and the grey became the dominant species.
The red squirrels are now in protected areas of the UK. Here on Anglesey, which is a small island off the Welsh coast, we are lucky to have them.
We have black squirrels here in Spain. My dogs like to chase them up trees.
Black ones? I don’t think I’ve those. But yes, I can imagine how entertaining they would be for the dogs, lol
We had them in Canada too.
We have black ones in America, as well. They are beautiful.
There has been an influx of white squirrels lately… I don’t know if they are truly albino though. We have had a lot of white deer, and I heard they are a different breed opposed to albino. I am not educated enough to know if that is true, but I do find it interesting…
How beautiful to have such a variety.