Squirrels feel at home on Bloomington campus

IU is home to more than a campus community of Hoosiers; squirrels inhabit the University landscape and use many of the same campus resources humans do.\nAround the University ecosystem, hundreds of gray and red squirrels live, work and frolic amongst the busy foot shuffle of human travel and machine screams of structure renovation. Professor Emilia Martins, director of the Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, said campus community members can understand squirrels better by observing their behavior as opposed to trying to interact with them.\n"If we weren't here or if the city wasn't here, you wouldn't have the squirrel population we do," Martins said. "Some animal species do much better with human disturbance. Other species don't do well at all with human changes to their environment." \nIn particular, squirrel experts say urban squirrels often work within the confines of territories ranging from one acre to several acres, which they mark by urinating and sweating on trees. Unlike tree squirrels or flying squirrels, ground squirrels spend the majority of their time hopping around, scrounging for various natural treats, such as nuts, fruit, seeds and certain bugs to consume.\nAssociate Professor of Biology Heather Reynolds said the squirrel position in the web of life is as an omnivore; squirrels will eat both plant and animal food, although unsalted and non-roasted hazelnuts, sunflower seeds and oak nuts are particularly sought after in squirrel communities. Also, squirrels enjoy unsalted peanuts in the shell. \n"Humans like to plant trees; squirrels like nuts and insects," Reynolds said. "Squirrels are incredibly important in their position. They are the Johnny Appleseed of hickory and oak forests. It is important they help plant the next generation of trees. In general, the advice is usually not to feed animals because it can set up a dependence potential. Squirrels do not need humans to feed them because they have plenty of food around campus."\nFor shelter purposes, the current generation of squirrels contributes to future tree life, which enables future squirrel generations to utilize all tree growth as housing. Squirrel experts say squirrels build twig, fur and leave nests on upper tree branches called "dreys," or they camp out in hollow tree cavities called "dens," depending on the climate. \nReynolds said college campuses have great potential for fostering biodiversity, since universities have a significant amount of "recognized green space."\n"By reducing the amount of lawn, we could have more areas like Dunn woods and cultivate more natural gardens, which would promote birds, butterflies, soil organisms and other life," Reynolds said. "No one thinks a campus could be a nature preserve, for example, a wildlife refuge. That level of human activity isn't conducive to most animal life; however, you can still foster what is called 'green landscaping.'" \nAs is the case when industrialized human life mixes with natural ecosystems, abundant squirrel populations can damage, destroy and wreak havoc on the convenience of human campus community life.\nRob North, senior communication specialist for Cinergy PSI, an electric company based in Cincinnati, said one squirrel can cause an unexpected "extraordinary" amount of damage to a campus community almost any day of the year. \n"Squirrels running along a (telephone or electric) line is not a problem; the problem comes when a squirrel touches two wires at the same time," North said. "First of all, it's usually not good for the squirrel when this happens. Secondly, circuits break and fuses blow."\nFor a recent example of the damage squirrels can cause to a city's electrical grid, North said an unidentified squirrel crawled into a power substation in West Lafayette a few weeks ago and fried himself to death.\n"More than 7,500 PSI customers did not have electricity for a few hours," North said. "The explosive damage caused metal fragments to destroy other machinery."\nBesides suicide and the pancake effect of being run over by an automobile, squirrels face the shotgun barrels of many rural community members, as squirrel hunting is illegal in most urban centers. \nOne of the largest squirrel hunts in the country was conducted at 2 p.m. on Aug. 31, 1822 in Franklin County, Ohio. At the end of the two- to three-day "Grand Squirrel Hunt," 19,660 squirrel scalps was the official headcount recorded by the no longer in publication Columbus Gazette newspaper.\nIn addition, squirrels are often perceived as pests by many campus community renters and homeowners. Krista Birdwell, a RT Certified Technician for Arab Termite and Pest Control, a Bloomington varmint reduction company, said every order of rodent and rodent situation is different. She said most animals are looking for a comfortable place to live with food, water, harborage and climate -- whether warm or cold.\n"Identification is the key," Birdwell said. "Try to figure out what you are dealing with and where the holes are. A person usually calls us when they have had enough. The common problem is scratching sounds coming from attics and walls. Squirrels are not the only animal that gets into the insulation and tears things apart." \nReynolds said many campus community groups are already attempting to provide safe harborage, plenty of food resources and various housing options for the University's thriving squirrel population, among other life forms. \n"Humans rely fundamentally on all processes occurring within the ecosystem," Reynolds said. "Squirrels contribute to the processes that generate the air we breathe, purify the water we drink and build the soil we grow crops in, all of which are fundamental life support services we humans could not do without. Squirrels enrich my sense of the value of life, the web of life in particular."\nLocally, she said the IU Council for Environmental Stewardship and the IU Green Landscaping Group are working to provide campus community members with "green space." Nationally, the Natural Wildlife Federation continues to support the School of Public and Environmental Affairs with native prairie plantings on recognized campus green land.\nWhile the quest for more green space occupies the minds of University biologists, Birdwell said campus community members can often learn to cope with bothersome squirrels invading their home space and occupying the buildings and trees on their land.\n"It's amazing what people will live with depending on their threshold of tolerance. Most people don't realize they help cause the problem by feeding them," Birdwell said. "The longer I do this job, the more I realize we live in their world. We are more of a problem to squirrels than they are to us."\n-- Contact staff writer David A. Nosko at dnosko@indiana.edu.