Squirrels are a common cause of power outages in the USA. They pose a danger to electrical/power grids. The Squirrel Index shows the peak of squirrel electrical disruption is from May to June and October to November. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ele…
Barnstorming, a form of rural entertainment where stunt pilots performed tricks individually or in flying circuses, was first performed by Charles Foster Willard. He's also the first person to be shot down in an airplane when an annoyed farmer fired a squirrel gun at him and broke his propeller. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar…
Squirrels are responsible for many of the power outages in the United States. The American Public Power Association has collected data on the issue for years and has come to one clear conclusion - "expect a higher incidence of squirrel-related outages in the spring and fall." publicpower.org/blog/defe…
Squirrels don’t take “fall damage” because their terminal velocity is too low for it to do any damage on impact, it’s the same with ants. physicsforums.com/threads…
"Electrical disruptions caused by squirrels are common and widespread. Between Memorial Day and August 31, 2013, at least 50 power outages caused by squirrels (POCBS) were recorded in 24 U.S. states." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ele…
Today I learned of Miss Baker, a squirrel monkey who was one of the first animals launched into space by the USA to return safely. After her space flight, Miss Baker set a record for longest lived squirrel monkey before dying at age 27. Her grave can often be found adorned with one or more bananas. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mis…
In 1987, a squirrel chewed through a power line near NASDAQ’s computer center and shut trading down for 87 minutes. Another squirrel repeated the event in 1994, shutting trading down for 34 minutes. cantechletter.com/2013/08…
Squirrels are predators. In addition to small bugs, squirrels have been spotted eating birds, snakes, mice, and shrews. In one instance, a pack of Russian black squirrels killed and ate a stray dog. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squ…
Oak trees produce bumper amounts of acorns in roughly 5 year cycles. Squirrels will bury many more than they can actually eat increasing the chance of a new oak growing. youtu.be/DPCL9kj7_bU
The dog chase scene in Christmas Vacation was done with an untrained squirrel when the trained squirrel died on the day of the shoot. rollingstone.com/feature/…
Squirrels will wrap their tails around their head during cold weather to reduce heat loss; the tail, with its high density of long hairs, is extremely well insulated, losing significantly less heat than the squirrel's body wildlifeonline.me.uk/anim…
The Hawaiian Islands do not have any squirrels, but they do have Mongooses, which were released in the 1800s to help control the rat population and are now considered an invasive species. instanthawaii.com/cgi-bin…
Grey Squirrels do not hibernate, their bodies are incapable of storing enough fat to do so, they do sleep a lot though, giving rise to the belief they go into Winter hibernation until the spring. wildlifeworld.co.uk/squir…
Squirrels' brains grow in size during the fall to help them remember where they bury their nuts. Their brains are smaller the rest of the year. lsa.umich.edu/psych/news-…
There was an outbreak of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease in rural Kentucky in the 90s that was likely linked to people eating squirrel brains thelancet.com/journals/la…
Today I learned about squirrel kings, a phenomenon where several squirrels are knotted together by their tails and are unable to self-separate. The squirrels that become tangled are nest-mates and will invariably die if they are not rescued and separated. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squ…
Arctic ground squirrels' body temperatures drop as low as -2.9C, the lowest measured in any mammal, and their major organs slow while others shut down entirely. They awaken in the midwinter to heat up to make sure they don’t get any colder. bbc.co.uk/earth/story/201…
When the Grand Canyon divided the local squirrel population, they evolved into two different species. Despite being separated only by the Colorado River and remaining extremely similar in appearance, they are now so genetically incompatible that they can no longer interbreed. cbsnews.com/news/nature-u…
In America, Squirrels have caused more power outages than cyber-criminals, with 9-21% of all outages across the country attributed to the. bloomberg.com/news/articl…
Squirrels are among the top causes of power outages across the U.S. In 2016 alone, utilities reported 3,456 outages caused by the ubiquitous rodents that cut off power to more than 193,873 customers. publicpower.org/blog/defe…
Squirrels are somewhat opportunistic when it comes to their diet. They‘re primarily herbivores but have also been known to eat small birds, young snakes, and smaller rodents, as well as bird eggs and insects. wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirr…
In the 1970's you could order a real live squirrel monkey from an ad in the back of comic books. Kids were shocked when they opened the box and a wild live squirrel monkey jumped out. boingboing.net/2008/11/03…
Birds are not affected by capsaicin - the chemical compound that makes spicy peppers feel hot. So you can keep squirrels and other animals out of bird feeders by adding some hot peppers. thepipettepen.com/blog/sp…
The strongest beer ever sold is "The End of History", which was brewed by BrewDog in Fraserburgh, Scotland and has an alcohol volume of 55%. Bottles were sold for £500 (US $806) each or £700 ($1,129) when packaged in a taxidermied squirrel. The last bottles were sold in July 2010. guinnessworldrecords.com/…
Scrat, the long-fanged squirrel from the Ice Age movies, actually existed - and the authors didn't know when they designed him. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cro…
A UK study found that North American gray squirrels are smarter than UK red squirrels at tasks to get hazelnuts. Both gray & red equally opened a clear flap to get a nut. But in a multi-step task including operating a lever to get a nut, 91% of gray squirrels solved it vs 62% of red squirrels. nationalgeographic.com/ne…
Live squirrel monkeys were advertised - for real - for sale on the back of comics and magazines in the late 60’s/early 70’s. They sold for the low low price of $18.95. Many were purchased by children. Many of the monkeys attacked when opened. The attached is just one account. npr.org/2014/04/25/306868…
The American Public Power Association has a ‘Squirrel Index’ data tracker to track squirrel attacks on electrical power systems. They found that the two peak periods of highest squirrel activity are May-June and October-November. publicpower.org/blog/defe…
Chrysopeleas, or "flying snakes", are a thing. These mildly venomous snakes live in Southeast Asia and glide through the jungle by propelling off the end of tree branches. They are better gliders than flying squirrels. api.nationalgeographic.co…
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