What’s up with the squirrels?

With so many dramatic political and economical issues facing IU students every day, there is one question that is on everyone’s mind: “What is up with the squirrels at IU?”

These bushy-tailed rodents have long been a diversion on my walks across campus. They make me wonder if the squirrels back home suffer from some form of terrible malnutrition, as they are half the size of those I find at IU. Not only that, but every time I open my back door, these critters scurry up the trees as if I were a hawk swooping in for the kill; whereas at IU, I sometimes think I could get close enough to pet one.

My curiosity led me to discover that our local squirrels are fox squirrels, or Sciurus niger (first word pronounced like “science,” not “scurry”). They are omnivorous (meat and plant eating), diurnal (opposite of nocturnal) rodents  who do not hibernate because they build up a winter store of food by burying nuts and acorns in the ground. And they are considered “tree squirrels” based on where they build their nests, which are large and easy to identify.

But what I really wanted to know was their average weight, which turns out to be a little less than two pounds, thus leading me to believe we may have some local contenders for a world record. As a disclaimer, I do not condone anyone trying to catch one in order to find out. However, I recall once witnessing a group of clever students at Wright Quad attempting the old piece-of-food-under-a-box trick, with a long string attached to a stick which propped the box up.

The plumpness of the local squirrels, along with their apparent fearlessness of humans (I once witnessed people actually moving out of the way of squirrels that were lounging on a sidewalk next to the Union), has made me wonder, have the IU squirrels possibly evolved such traits?

Studies on ground squirrels (a close relative to tree squirrels) have suggested that they are not born with innate fear of predators, but instead undergo a period of great plasticity in which they learn how much fear is appropriate while still being able to carry out the essential daily functions (i.e. stuffing their faces all day long).

The microhabitat of the IU campus seems to be mostly devoid of natural predators for the squirrels; it is very rare that I see any birds of prey on campus. We mature college students also tend to leave them well alone, except for, I am sure, the occasional feeding. This leaves little reason to fear spending time on the ground, or getting close to people, who tend to have food anyway.

This suggests to me that it is the leisurely lifestyles of our local squirrel population alone, not natural selection, that allows them to do their Jabba the Hutt impersonation. Which can make it very entertaining to watch them panic and waddle up a tree when the no-leash dog walkers cross through campus.


E-mail: tylatkin@indiana.edu