The Squirrel

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae

Now, some people will call me paranoid, but I am somewhat convinced that squirrels are slowly but surely taking over the St. George Campus. I first noticed this last year as a confused and egotistic first year, and simply attributed the large number of squirrels to the downtown environment. This year, I know better. They’re after us.

To be more precise, they’re after our acorns and nuts. It is fall after all and just the time when they’re all busy gathering acorns and hiding them away for the long winter months. So that might be the reason we’re seeing more of them; it’s probably their most public time of the year!

Yet in my mild paranoia, I Googled some facts about these suspicious rodents and came across the following link: http://www.toronto.ca/animal_services/squirrel.htm

Since nothing was said of an impending squirrel army, either I’m being delusional or (more likely) the government’s trying to cover it up.

However, for anyone who’s somewhat curious about the squirrels of downtown Toronto, here are some basic facts taken straight from the City of Toronto’s website:

• Squirrels breed twice a year; from late winter to early spring and then again in mid-summer to early fall.
• Mother squirrels are very protective of their young and if threatened have been known to attack people and pets.
• Squirrels are active during the day and sleep at night. They do not hibernate over winter.
• Never grab a squirrel, even if you have gloves on – squirrels can bite through any glove.
• Never corner a squirrel — it may become aggressive.
• Never light a fire while a squirrel is trapped in a stove or fireplace — you may injure or kill it, leaving you with a smelly dead animal to remove.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 10th, 2011 at 12:00 pm and is filed under UT Life, Whimsical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.