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Seriously. Let me tell you about what this typically acorn-loving, bushy-tailed rodent has been up to. I recently had a serious problem with the nearby squirrels of the GGNRA, so serious that a California game warden had to be called in to issue me a depredation permit to take care of my personal squirrel problem. But first, some squirrel history. There are two species of gray squirrel in North America. By far the most common is the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), which is the largest tree squirrel in the eastern U.S. There is also the western gray squirrel (Sciurus griseus) which is found in oak-forest areas along the Pacific Coast, south of Tacoma, Washington. That includes the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The Latin genus name "Sciurus" comes from "skia," meaning shadow, and "oura," meaning tail. So this animal sits in the shadow of its very large tail, which is used as a sun shade, a warm covering in winter, or a balance when it jumps from tree to tree — as my squirrel did when it found the monterey pine in my front yard. This pine, the only one in our yard, has a trunk that is about eight inches in diameter. It is maybe 30 feet high, or at least it used to be. One morning in August I walked out to get the paper and found a large pine branch about one inch thick and three feet long lying on the ground under the tree. Up the tree, one large, sassy, gray squirrel barked at me, as if it was his tree. Upon inspecting the branch, it was clear that he had chewed it off like an accomplished tree pruner. My immediate assumption was that he was after the pine cones on the branch. The cones hold pine seeds. I was not happy with his dietary manners, but one branch is not too much to be upset about. Later, I came outside and found several more branches on the ground. Some had pine cones, but most did not. Only one of the pine cones had any signs that it had been chewed on. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I surmised that the squirrel was trying to build a nesting platform in the pine tree. They do this for cover when no hollow trees are available for nighttime denning. There are plenty of larger trees nearby which offer much better opportunities for build nesting platforms, as well as hollows. But nature is always serving up unexpected twists, so I again gave the squirrel the benefit of the doubt. The next day, he was back at it. A steady pile of branches came down and there was no hint of any attempt to build a nest. More, sap from the exposed stumps on the tree was now dripping down on the car. Seeing this, I took some of the pine cones he had knocked off and let him know that I was not happy. He barked back at me and ran to the top of the tree, which by now was heavily pruned and growing shorter by the minute. I went inside, and watched. After a time, he came down the tree and headed across the street, where he began to prune the neighbor's pines. This led to a neighborly conversation and an invitation to have me take care of the squirrel (role of neighborhood hunter). The offer was tempting, but I felt I should do things according to the book, just to make sure some animal-rights person would not cause trouble. As you may know, tree squirrels are a game animal. Ted Nugent's recently-released Kill It and Grill It offers a tasty recipe for bushytails. But there is a season on tree squirrels in California. In my area, it extends from the second Saturday in September through the last Sunday in January. This was August. The California Fish and Game law stipulates, "no person shall harass, herd, or drive any game or non-game bird, mammal, or fur-bearing mammal," unless it is in season or you have a permit to go after the beast. Since the bushytail bushwacker was not yet in season, I called Fish and Game. Three days later, the warden arrived. During that time, the squirrel had expanded his range of pine-tree pruning to four different yards. In some cases, he had actually topped the trees, gnawing down some branches that were two inches thick. It turns out that the state can issue landowners depredation permits to catch, drive away, or kill a wild animal that is causing crop or property damage. The common noxious species listed on the depredation permit application are: deer, bear, elk, beaver, wild pig, mountain lion, and the animal that was wrecking havoc on our neighborhood — the gray squirrel. The reason why gray squirrels are included in such a formidable list is that they are aggressive little guys. They are known to gnaw their way into attics, dig up tulip bulbs, mow down shrubbery, and consume large quantities of agricultural crops. In l807, the Ohio General Assembly required each taxable person to produce 10 to 100 squirrel scalps per year, just to be an upright citizen and protect the corn and wheat crops (perhaps also the pine forests). The normal diet of gray squirrels is nuts, especially acorns, as well as buds, fruit, and seeds. On some occasions they will also eat bird eggs and even young birds. And they also will chew on branches to eat the sap, which is what our "noxious animal" seemed to be doing. An Indian medicine-man friend of mine wondered if this squirrel was an evil spirit. Assuming this was not the case, I guessed that sudden oak death syndrome, which has devastated oak trees in our area, had reduced the acorn production, leading the squirrel to develop a taste for pine-tree sap. And regardless of why, this squirrel had decided to mow down pine trees in my neighborhood, so the question was how to stop him. The warden agreed that this squirrel was not behaving normally and was causing considerable damage to the local trees. The easiest solution would be to simply move up the dates of the tree-squirrel season about a month. But these days, the greenists are capable of doing to Fish and Game what the squirrel was doing to the pine trees, so we decided to play it by the book. To begin, I had to be issued an official depredation permit, which is attainable by landowners "to kill deer, bear, elk, wild pig, gray squirrel, beaver, or mountain lion." The warden also reminded me that in California's 68-page Guide to Mammal Hunting, it states that there is a "safety zone" of 150 yards around any home where one cannot legally discharge a firearm, unless one is the property owner. If the squirrel came on my three-quarter-acre property, I would be the property owner. If a neighbor invited me onto their property to take care of the squirrel, that would be okay, but there would be other homes within 150 yards. The thought of surveying the entire neighborhood to harvest a squirrel did not sit well. Then there would be the potential for a projectile to travel out of the yard, etc. So, the pellet gun or bow and arrow were ruled out. It turned out that the only legal way to remove the squirrel was with a live trap, for as a result of recently passed legislation "steel-jawed leg-hold traps, padded or otherwise, are prohibited." This meant renting a Hava-heart live trap, which costs $20 for the week. Next, to follow the letter of the law, once I caught the squirrel, I could not just put him in the back of the truck and drive into the GGNRA several miles away and let him go. It is illegal to possess a live wild animal without a special permit. So, if and when I caught Sciurus, I had to call either the Humane Society animal officer or the game warden, one of whom would come and relocate the squirrel. In the meantime, if you can believe it, I would be responsible for his welfare. So I rented the trap and used some peanut butter and oatmeal to make a squirrel's delight for bait. But the squirrel would have no part of it. He sat up in the trees, chattering away and feasting on pine sap. I became suspicious that maybe he was an evil spirit. Being of Scottish decent I refused to spend another $20 on another week of trying to live-trap the squirrel. A neighbor then offered to let his dog out when anyone spotted the squirrel. After setting up a neighborhood squirrel watch, we had several days of heated barking exchanges between canine and Sciurus. Finally, Sciurus moved down the hill and began working on a grove of pines in a nearby park. At this writing, he's still down there pruning pine trees — but not in my backyard. For those of you who encounter similar problems with a Sciurus species, I have since been advised by some game biologists that oil of mustard and moth balls sometimes repels gray squirrels. You can also put a metal collar on your trees if there is no way for the squirrels to jump into them from another tree. Too bad someone hasn't invented a way to catch problem squirrels with red tape. —
Mr.
Swan is the “Media Watch” columnist for North
American Hunter
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he Golden Gate National Recreational Area is an open space of a mile or
two in depth that runs northward from the Golden Gate Bridge and connects
with two state parks and the Point Reyes National Seashore. It's a large
tract of coastal grassy hills and forested valleys that is a recreationist's
delight and a haven for many wild critters — including the dreaded
rampaging beast known as the squirrel.
