Earlier quoted context omitted.
I often refer to squirrels as cute, fluffy-tailed arboreal rats...
and pigeons?
pigeons are rats that can fly
When Squirrels Were One of America’s Most Popular Pets (2017)
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Re: When Squirrels Were One of America’s Most Popular Pets (2017)
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rats are apparently also smarter.
A friend of mine kept them as pets. I was there once and watched one eat a piece of spaghetti. It held the noodle with both paws, sitting on its hind legs, and took bites while feeding it into its mouth "hand over hand". I have never really forgotten that. There was something so deliberate and skilled about this. No dumb beast, this, face down in a pile of food. This was an intelligent, fastidious creature enjoying a…
That’s actually a behavioral task used in neuroscience experiments as well. Pasta eating is a surprisingly complex skill involving dexterous manipulation and complexity sensory and motor signaling throughout the brain.
Re: When Squirrels Were One of America’s Most Popular Pets (2017)
#23Northern flying squirrel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_flying_squirrel
Re: When Squirrels Were One of America’s Most Popular Pets (2017)
#24Me and my wife have raised 5 between us (3 together and she's had 2 on her own). They are incredible animals, and playing with a squirrel is something very special.
Re: When Squirrels Were One of America’s Most Popular Pets (2017)
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some people (like me) find rats and mice to be cute. And FYI, rats did NOT cause the Black Death. That was the theory at the time, but it hasn't held up to scrutiny. We are now fairly certain it was human lice. Both the outbreak patterns and genetic evidence makes this clear.
Bubonit plaque is still spread by mice and it's still a pfovkt.
I'm not sure what a pfovkt is. Bubonic plague CAN be spread by (fleas on) mice or rats. But historically it was not, at least not in Europe. The most recent outbreaks in Europe in the 19th century were carried by lice. We know this for certain. Looking back at historical outbreaks in the Middle Ages and early modern period, the information about how the plague spread is consistent with lice, not rats as the vector. For example, people sharing the same bed and sheets get sick, but not people in adjoining houses sharing the same walls and garden. The outbreak of the great plague in London is not near the quarantine docks as one would expect, but rather a poor area on the completely other side which was known to be a site of prostitution. It then spread largely along class lines through communities with poor hygiene, largely skipping affluent areas even when there was nothing that would have prevented rats from moving through.
Re: When Squirrels Were One of America’s Most Popular Pets (2017)
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rats are apparently also smarter.
I've seen squirrels bait cats and other animals in a playful fashion, facing downwards on a tree doing the undulating tail thing. Maybe rats are smarter, but squirrels are pretty playful and charismatic.
I used to keep a rat, and considered her about as smart and enterprising as my cats.
I regularly feed squirrels coming to my window. Some of them are curious and brave enough to enter the room through the window, and they definitely learned what actions of mine lead to food appearing at the windowsill.
Animals are fun.
Re: When Squirrels Were One of America’s Most Popular Pets (2017)
#27My family got roped into fostering some baby squirrels that had lost their nest. They're very cute, but in my experience they were very skittish and frankly their claws are too sharp to make comfortable pets. I wish it were otherwise, since I really admire them as highly capable animals.
We raised them with the intent of releasing them into "the wild" (of Burbank) and eventually did get them to be pretty much independent of us. So that worked pretty well.
Re: When Squirrels Were One of America’s Most Popular Pets (2017)
#28So is this why they are so wide spread and a pest? Squirrels are much rarer in Europe. Like you only see them in the forest rare and they are orange. The black/grey squirrels here are a real problem for backyard gardeners. Like they will pretty much steal every fruit tree bare.
Rare in Europe? I'm looking out of my window in central London and there are at least three squirrels arguing about brexit or something. In warmer months, I need to be careful not to kick one of them as I go by on the sidewalk. They are everywhere.
Re: When Squirrels Were One of America’s Most Popular Pets (2017)
#29So is this why they are so wide spread and a pest? Squirrels are much rarer in Europe. Like you only see them in the forest rare and they are orange. The black/grey squirrels here are a real problem for backyard gardeners. Like they will pretty much steal every fruit tree bare.
Rare in Europe? I'm looking out of my window in central London and there are at least three squirrels arguing about brexit or something. In warmer months, I need to be careful not to kick one of them as I go by on the sidewalk. They are everywhere.
Well, one can hardly generalize to Europe just from London.
To give just one counterexample, I grew up in a very rural/mountainy part of Austria, surrounded by forests everywhere, and I can count the times I have seen a squirrel on one hand.
Re: When Squirrels Were One of America’s Most Popular Pets (2017)
#30I have a good bunch of squirrels I feed outside my home office... I can attest they are delightful creatures when you get to know them. They’re smart, gentle, engaging, and all have a different and developing personality. Yes, they’re rodents, but rodents are a big family!
Rodents can be extremely friendly and cute indeed. Evidence: capivaras!