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08 Aug 2012
This is what flying squirrels do in attics. They prefer to poop and pee in one spot until the accumulation causes staining through sheetrock or other areas of the house. Not exactly a pleasant smell either!
Tim Lynch
Quality Control Supervisor
Environmental Health Services, Inc.
30 Apr 2012
Fat Squirrel Scarfs Down Entire Slice Of Pizza
We can all cry about the health ads on TV are telling us to lay off the fat and sugar, but when our squirrels are eating whole slices of pizza without compunction it's safe to say we have a problem.
Sure this proves that we live in a society of such overwhelming abundance that there are entire slices of pizza just lying around for woodland animals to enjoy. But it also helps to answer a question that has plagued philosophers for centuries: do squirrels eat pizza cheese first or crust first?
George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist
16 Apr 2012
Pennsylvania’s Purple Squirrel A Rainbow-Colored Riddle
A bright purple squirrel trapped by a Pennsylvania couple has experts offering all sorts of theories -- but no concrete answers.
Percy and Connie Emert from Jersey Shore, Pa., trapped the brightly colored creature while trying to keep the birds safe in their backyard feeder, reported Accuweather.com. They told the weather service they had no explanation for the rodent’s deep purple color.
"We have no idea whatsoever. It's really purple. People think we dyed it, but honestly, we just found it and it was purple," the Emerts told Accuweather.
Experts queried by Accuweather had several theories for the unusual look, but no hard answers. Indeed, Krish Pillai, a professor at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, told Accuweather he thought the coloring was dangerous for the animal.
I’ve got to think one of the suggestions might be it fell in a Porta John that had blue coloration. - Henry Kacprzyk, Pittsburgh Zoo curator
"This is not good at all. That color looks very much like Tyrian purple. It is a natural organobromide compound seen in molluscs and rarely found in land animals. The squirrel (possibly) has too much bromide in its system," he said.
Some AccuWeather.com meteorologists had their own theories. Expert Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity thought it was merely an accident.
"The squirrel could have been looking for somewhere warm and fallen into a port-a-potty or something similar," he said,
Henry Kacprzyk, a curator at the Pittsburgh Zoo, said Thursday he thought it looked like a gray squirrel tinged in purple, after looking at a picture of the critter on an iPhone.
He knows of albino squirrels. Black squirrels. Gray squirrels. Reddish squirrels.
“But the purple coloration, from the purple I saw … it looked to me like this animal had come in contact with something with its fur and dyed its fur,” Kacprzyk said. The squirrel could have come in contact with a pokeberry patch, but pokeberries aren’t in season.
And strange as it sounds, he thought Margusity’s toilet theory might hold water.
“I’ve got to think one of the suggestions might be it fell in a Porta John that had blue coloration,” he said with a chuckle. “I have no idea why … but I don’t think it was born that way.”
When asked about the suggestions by some people in online forums of the potential impact of fracking fluid, Kacprzyk said the composition of such fluids in Pennsylvania wasn’t known. “My guess there is if you don’t know something, is that there’s no scientific proof to that. … I would find it amazing that it had that kind of effect,” he said.
In general, purple is an unusual color for mammals, let alone squirrels.
“There are definitely birds that have coloration like this … but not mammals,” he said. “Mammals don’t normally uptake color, ingest something it goes through and (then) it comes out through their fur.”
George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist
06 Jun 2011
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Aint’ no mountain high enough….aint’ no mountain high enough……
OK, its not a mountain but its still 30-40ft up. In this case a poor squirrel was probably eating a nut on the chimney then slipped & fell down the chimney. He survived and broke free from the damper panel in the basement. Having fell 30ft down a chimney then opening a door to a new world (the basement of the house) where he completely FREAKED OUT! I really can’t blame the critter.
This was not exactly the feeling by the homeowner who had the squirrel terrorize her family by running around the house for a few days. The family dog did have some excitement though! The squirrel had eventually had enough and left through the open garage door.
The next step for EHS was to get on the roof and measure for a chimney cap installation to prevent any future unwanted wildlife visitors.
Mark Tremblay
Service Specialist
21 Feb 2011
Progress Energy Company said hotels on Disney World property lost power on Christmas Eve after a squirrel came in contact with electrical equipment.
The power company said 22 homes lost power for about 30 minutes on Friday, including several hotels along Hotel Plaza Boulevard near Downtown Disney.
Power has since been restored to all the affected properties.
Source: St Petersburg Times
15 Feb 2011
I am channel surfing & I come across a woman holding a dead squirrel in her hands. What made me put the brakes on my surfing was the fact that the woman was actually excited to be holding a dead squirrel???!!!
Needless to say I see that the show is on again so I am going to DVR it so I can watch it in its entirety to get a grasp of what is going on. The show is “My Big Redneck Wedding” so automatically I know I am in for a #*!show
After two minutes I realize these rednecks live up to their stereotypes! The premise is a seriously backwoods wedding & the potential bride wants dead squirrels o n her wedding cake. Most normal people would ask…WHY??!!! Keep in mind these are rednecks we are talking about!
In order to get the cake she wants she needs to “get her sum squirrels” and elicits the help of her classy & upstanding (sarcasm folks!) future hubby who has to shoot them.
Needless to say I un-DVR’d the show because I was afraid that the stupidity would actually seem from the TV and infect me!
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