I love watching the squirrels outside my window. Their agility, though not necessarily graceful, is beyond amazing. They intuitively know which tree branches are willing to hold their weight, when combined with their speed and the distance from which they jump. Some people, like myself, enjoy the amusing acrobatics of squirrels. We routinely set out the squirrels’ favorite foods of corn and peanuts. Many types of squirrel feeders can be attached to trees, providing them a feeding station of their own, apart from the bird feeders. Rarely does this deter them; however, from making their best efforts to steal the bird seed, since they are also very fond of sunflower seeds.
Sciurus niger, or the Fox Squirrel, is seen as a problem by some who perceive them as tree rats, rather than tree squirrels. I have had nearly tame squirrels in the past that would take a peanut right from my hand. In fact, the squirrels would run up to me as soon as I walked out my back door, so I made it a practise to keep peanuts in my pocket. I enjoy watching their complicated maneuvers as they hop from the porch roof to the porch railing; and then make a flying leap to the lowest branches of a tree. Occasionally, I hear a thud overhead when they jump from one of the trees to the roof, or when they race after one another across the width of the roof. I often wonder how they can hang on in the 60 MPH plus wind gusts that we often get here. The squirrels do not seem at all hampered or inconvenienced, though, by the challenging wind.
Watching the squirrels is a form of entertainment for me. Watching any animal, wild or domestic, can teach us so much. When I first began working with swans, my job was to observe and to write down interactions and behavior. Indigenous Americans had a reverence for all animals, and plants as well. Their knowledge was vast because they spent time observing and listening to the animals and plants around them. Modern scientists on the other hand, approach other life forms as though they are mere objects. They isolate, they capture, they imprison, and they torture other living things in order to understand them; but they will never understand because they do not respect life. More people are waking up to the fact that there is vast intelligence in all living things. These other beings are sentient. They can teach us, but we must honor them, listen to them, and realize that there is so much we do not know. We must release our belief in our own intelligence and our own self-aggrandizement if we are to attain true wisdom. They say that when we are ready to learn, the teacher will appear. Our teachers have been here all along, but we must stop our incessant noise if we are to hear what they are saying.
