Squirrels are becoming common in our neighborhood. We never used to have squirrels at all; over twenty years in this neighborhood, and never a squirrel did we see. I wonder why they have arrived now, and from where. I hope they aren't going to be yet another stress on the bird population -- do squirrels eat bird eggs? -- and I wonder if some other animal had a niche that the squirrels are taking over, or if the squirrel niche was just sitting there vacant. Once or twice in the past, my mom has seen a rat trundling along a utility wire. You'd think rats would be able to defend their territory against squirrels, but I guess they might be about the same size.

(pause for googling)

hmm. apparently squirrels may sometimes eat bird eggs. but their preferred foods are tree seeds (nuts). though they are not averse to fruit, to the dismay of many gardeners. One of my mom's friends told her a while ago that squirrels had gone and taken one bite out of every single avocado on her backyard tree. 'I wouldn't grudge them completely eating just a few, but why do they have to take a bite of each and ruin them all?'

Ah, survival of the fittest. We may think we've won, but the testing is never finished. I also heard this morning more about the problem of Asian carp species in the Mississippi, and heading upstream. Some people in Minnesota are considering an electrified fence/net across the whole river to keep the carp out. Of course, this would hinder the movements of native fish also. But if the carp come to dominate the Mississippi, the native fish may be dead anyway.

Trade-offs. Increased communication, greater mixing of people, greater opportunities for travel and interaction: blending of languages and cultures, loss of small niche languages, spread of successful species worldwide at expense of some natives, all the world's people and animals and bugs and diseases and plants thrown more and more together into one big deathmatch ring, for better or worse.

Speaking of deathmatch, one skill that squirrels certainly do not have is the smooth, decisive crossing of roads. However many or few rats there may have been, I never was in danger of running over one. Who knows how important of a survival skill that may turn out to be.

contents of the purple tricycle are copyright 2003 carrie lynn king unless otherwise noted.