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HISTORY  Squirrels can be considered pre-historic animals. The oldest known fossilized squirrel skeleton is over fifty million years old!
The word "squirrel" derives from the Greek words "skia", which means "shadow", and "oura", which means "tail". The Greeks understood "squirrel" to mean "a creature that sits in the shadow of its tail."
According to ancient Scandinavian legend, the squirrel dwells in the Tree of Life and is symbolic of all the bad luck and trouble that happens in our lives!
Grey squirrels were introduced into England by the Victorians, who thought that the sprightly rodents livened up their lush gardens and imported them from faraway countries.
Squirrels arrived in America from England as stowaways on Pilgrim ships. Historians have since marvelled at their remarkable survival skills, as squirrels have adapted and thrived all over North America.
Early Cherokee Indians believed that eating squirrel meat would cause rheumatism. This belief was based on of the squirrel's flexible spine, which gives it an appearance of poor posture! Other native American tribes believed that eating squirrel meat while sowing nut-bearing plants would bring bad karma and cause the crop to die.
In the late 18th century, the squirrel population in Ohio ballooned to uncontrollable numbers. In 1791, squirrels invaded the territory around the town of Belpre after that year's acorn crop failed to sustain their appetites. After eating the Belpre settlers' entire corn crop, the squirrels (which are not especially known for their aquatic prowess) swam across the Ohio River en masse and began devouring West Virginia!
In Scotland at the end of the eighteenth century, red squirrels were nearly extinct because of woodland clearance and severe winters. In 1844, Lady Lovat of Scotland persuaded government officials to reintroduce the lovely creatures in the Highlands. The squirrels multiplied rapidly and began migrating outward. Angered by the damage the squirrels caused to the woodlands, a Highland Squirrel Club was formed with the sole mission to hunt, trap, poison and kill the unpopular squirrels. Over 100,000 red squirrels were killed at the insistence of the club, which provided financial incentives for locals who brought in squirrel tails. Ironically, Scotland now faces one of the greatest squirrel crises in world history: the desperate endangerment of red squirrels.
By the early 1800s, Ohio pioneers organized squirrel hunts to keep the squirrel population down to manageable numbers. By 1810, it was not uncommon for hunters to kill 2,000 squirrels per hunt. The largest squirrel massacre occurred in Franklin County, taking the lives of 19,600 squirrels.
On April 6, 1903, large numbers of red and grey squirrels were shipped from Texas and Colorado into the small midwestern town of Hinsdale, Illinois. The arrival of the squirrels culminated the efforts of village president and local banker Deming Preston, who argued before the village board that the bushy-tailed rodents should be proclaimed a protected species and the town should begin a crusade to repopulate its territory with squirrels. Today, April 6 is celebrated as Squirrel Day in Hinsdale. Locals traditionally lay out gourmet nutty delicacies on their doorsteps for their beloved squirrels.
In the 1940s, six black squirrels were smuggled into the town of Glendale, Ohio by Tom Carruthers III, who thought they were beautiful creatures. Of the six, one was skinned and kept as a trophy in a local tavern. The remaining five set to populating Glendale. The town is now one of a only a handful of areas in the world with a significant black squirrel population, and the lovely rodent has been crowned Glendale’s official mascot.
During the 1960s, the North Carolina legislature approved a bill to make squirrel the official state mammal. During consideration of the bill, Representative Basil Barr argued: "The grey squirrel is thrifty. He buries nuts." To which Representative Henry Boshamer wryly replied, "Any animal that buries nuts would be dangerous to this General Assembly."
The most densely squirrel-populated area in the world is Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C. where surrounding offices pooled together resources in the 1960s to provide a constant supply of peanuts for their furry neighbors. However, the squirrel population has caused problems with plant life and traffic, and federal authorities have periodically attempted to trap and relocate large numbers of squirrels to other Washington area parks.
While in the Oval Office, President Dwight Eisenhower despised the squirrels that grazed on the White House lawn. Eisenhower ordered federal officials to trap the bushy-tailed creatures and deport them in bagfuls in order to protect his private golf course. Angry protestors drove by the White House and unleashed squirrels onto the property to irk the anti-squirrel President.
President Ronald Reagan was well-known for his love for the squirrels that shared the White House lawn. Reagan frequently brought back acorns from Camp David for his furry friends and once commissioned a local artist to paint a squirrel scurrying across the White House for that year’s presidential Christmas card. In one of his final interviews, Reagan reflected on his fondness for squirrels when asked about his experiences living in the White House.
Princess Diana was extremely fond of the squirrels which made their home at Kensington Palace. The princess frequently scattered nuts with Princes William and Harry for the royal rodents. Shortly after her death in 1997, five dozen squirrels were found drowned in the Kensington Palace pool, allegedly by royal gardeners who were glad to finally rid the grounds of the pesky rodents. An investigation by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty for Animals turned up empty.
Squirrels have been blamed for causing at least one confirmed stock market crash and a Miss America Pageant disaster in the United States, as well as precipitating countless fires and power outages which have left entire cities without electricity for days. For example, New York City officials claim that squirrels cause at least one power outage every day.
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