Jan 13, 2025
Substandard housing
The squirrels of our neighborhood are fat, sassy and copious - various species; all color phases. They dine on plump acorns and savory black walnuts they crack, miraculously, with their teeth.
This time of year, when the single-digit temperatures hit, I find myself wondering how they survive in those flimsy nests that are no more than clumps of leaves and sticks high up in the branches of trees, where the winds blow the coldest.
The answer, I discovered, is that they don’t; in Michigan, 60 percent of squirrels live less than a year. It’s nature’s way of preventing overpopulation.