Squirrels Help Stroke Victims

Hibernating Squirrels Provide
Clues For Stroke, Parkinson’s
A compound that enables squirrels to hibernate may one day help minimize brain damage that results from stroke, according to a researcher at the Medical College of Georgia and Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Augusta. It only seems fair since squirrels cause so many people to have strokes in the first place!

Other related squirrel studies involve experiments that could someday help suppress human appetites, or even save lives on the battlefield.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if squirrels helped man suppress his appetite.

Osquirrelamosis

There is a very simple answer to squirrels gaining entrance to squirrel-proof feeders. The process is called "osquirrelamosis." This is the tendency of a squirrel to pass through a semipermeable membrane, like your feeder, into a concentrated space which then equalizes the feeding conditions on either side of the membrane.

This process is not fully understood by birdfeeder manufacturers at this time, so their claims of providing squirrel-proof birdfeeders are not quite dishonest. Of course, we can’t overlook the fact that these devices don’t work.

I am not trying to tell you squirrel-proof feeders are a waste of money because they do work on some squirrels. It is believed that some squirrels are not osmotic. Osmosis is a very complicated process, and many squirrels are just not mentally up to the task of physically performing the necessary osmotic steps that enable them to gain access to squirrel-proof feeders.

Your best defense is a good offense. Put out several nice squirrel feeders far away from the house if you do not want them hanging around harassing your birds. In most cases they will stay out and work the feeders that can be accessed without using the energy-draining osmosis procedure. But remember, when your squirrels are out of sight they are also out of minding distance.

Britain Trying to Save the Red

LONDON—British conservationists launched a campaign to save the country's native red squirrels against their disease-carrying, food-stealing and bigger grey cousins from North America.

Grey squirrels were introduced to Britain in the late 19th century and now outnumber Red squirrels 66 to 1. The smaller reds are now rarely seen outside northern England and Scotland. So conservationists are taking a hand. Red Alert North England, which includes representatives of wildlife trusts, the Forestry Commission and landowners, is focusing on creating 16 red squirrel reserves across the forests of Northumberland, Cumbria, Yorkshire and Merseyside in northern England.

Richard Pow, chairman of the group, said: "We will be combining their resources and expertise to try to ensure that this extraordinary creature survives in England into the next century," Pow said."This project is a fantastic example of a wide range of organizations uniting to deliver something that I know is close to the hearts of the people of northern England," he said. The woodland reserves chosen offer red squirrels the best chance of survival. The forests will be managed to support populations of red squirrels, but care will be taken that they do not include the kinds of plants that the gray squirrels' higher energy diet demands. Grey squirrels will be relegated to "buffer zones" surrounding the reserves, Pow said, and local people will be taught how to conserve the reds in the 1 million-pound (US$1.8 million; euro1.5 million) project.

Red squirrels, immortalized by British children's author Beatrix Potter as the engaging, nut-obsessed "Squirrel Nutkin," were once common in gardens and woodlands across Britain before coming under threat from the grey variety, which steals the reds' food and carries the squirrel-pox virus.