Ooo, squirrels, Boo! I know I saw them! Quick, throw nuts!

One thing I do like about the UK is that there's different animals around. While I'm fond of the sight of wallabies, possums, wombats, echnidas and other Australian animals that I can't see now, it's seeing other animals that is quite enjoyable.


I have to say that I'm fond of squirrels. Not only do they hop around rather playfully in the local park grounds, but they'll happily ignore people and other animals most of the time, allowing you to walk past as they go about their business.

They do occasionally take offense at the presence of another squirrel though, thinking it is cutting in on its food-finding territory. Not that they actually fight or anything like that, just one squirrel runs towards another one, which promptly runs away. It's like there's some squirrel hierarchy that only they know about.

But because these squirrels are so used to people, it's not too difficult to attract their attention. Any small morsel of food will do the trick nicely, whether a nut, grape, or other small foodstuff. They tentatively approach an outstretched hand, and very careful prop themselves up on hind legs and grasp the bit of food before darting a short distance away to either eat it or make the decision to bury it for later.

They're so polite about taking the food from people that it's almost as though they've been trained. Getting them to stay still long enough for you to take a non-blurry photo, however, is another matter entirely...