Squirrels at the University of California-Davis have it made.
5300 acres of lush habitat.
The eastern fox squirrel is living large on the University of California Davis campus. Wildlife scientists will use a contraceptive vaccine to try to control the population. Photo courtesy UC Davis
(And we’re not talking the average “frugal student” ramen noodles and peanut butter and jelly. UC-Davis is home to The Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science.)
With nary a predator, there’s been a population explosion of the non-native eastern fox squirrels, from zero to about 400 in the past seven years. And now there’s worry the critters might get more aggressive, biting the collegiate hands that feed them. Squirrels can carry bacteria that is harmful to humans. And an unchecked population could become a threat to the regional economy, spreading to nearby farmland and chomping away at the local fruits and nuts.
When college officials searched for answers to these potential nuisances, they had to go no further than scientists on campus.
And as one might expect from a campus in California, the plan is to control the population with no harm to the animals involved.
Squirrel contraception.
“This new birth control method may potentially help control squirrels or other species, such as white tailed deer,” said Sara Krause, a doctoral student in ecology who designed the plan.
“If we can test a birth control method and find it safe and effective, there’s a possibility of it being a breakthrough method in both urban and suburban areas,” she said.
Continued unchecked procreation and expansion of their territory could mean farmers and ranchers would put an end to the invasive fox squirrels permanently. Squirrels can do serious damage to almond and walnut orchards.
The birth control method being used is a vaccine, called GonaCon.
Krause explained that it’s an immunocontraceptive vaccine, blocking the pathway to the production of sperm and eggs. One shot leaves the animals sterile for about two years. And the same vaccine works on both males and females.
(Now there’s a concept that every female on the planet can appreciate.)
Krause and others have just begun placing 20-40 humane traps around the campus. The traps will be checked two to four times a day. On this first round, captured animals will be examined, marked with a nontoxic dye, and let go. The squirrels will be observed until next summer, when they’ll be re-captured. Then, some will get the contraceptive injection, others a placebo. Again, they’ll be set free to roam the campus.
If the experiment works as planned, the number of squirrels will decline to a sustainable number within ten years. And federal wildlife biologists could use the contraceptive on other prolific progeny producers.
30-something to his girlfriend: Don’t look at my penis when I’m a squirrel!
Uptown
Overheard by Oh Nuts.
The grey squirrel, the American cousin of Britain's endangered red variety, is flying off the shelves faster than hunters can shoot them, with game butchers struggling to keep up with demand. 'We put it on the shelf and it sells. It can be a dozen squirrels a day - and they all go,' said David Simpson, the director of Kingsley Village shopping centre in Fraddon, Cornwall, whose game counter began selling grey squirrel meat two months ago.
At Ridley's Fish and Game shop in Corbridge, Northumberland, the owner David Ridley says he has sold 1,000 - at £3.50 a squirrel - since he tested the market at the beginning of the year. 'I wasn't sure at first, and wondered would people really eat it. Now I take every squirrel I can get my hands on. I've had days when I have managed to get 60 and they've all sold straight away.'
Simpson likens the taste to wild boar. Ridley thinks it is more a cross between duck and lamb. 'It's moist and sweet because, basically, its diet has been berries and nuts,' he said.
Both believe its new-found popularity is partly due to its green credentials. 'People like the fact it is wild meat, low in fat and local - so no food miles,' says Simpson. Ridley reckons that patriotism also plays a part: 'Eat a grey and save a red. That's the message.'
A glut of back-to-the-wild TV programmes featuring celebrity chefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has also tickled the public's palate, but squirrel is still unlikely to be found in the family fridge. The Observer's restaurant critic, Jay Rayner, said he had never tasted squirrel, but if he did have it for dinner 'it would have to be a big, fat country squirrel and not one of the mangy urban ones you see in cities'.
'People may say they are buying it because it's green and environmentally friendly, but really they're doing it out of curiosity and because of the novelty value. If they can say, "Darling, tonight we're having squirrel", then that takes care of the first 30 minutes of any dinner party conversation. I see it remaining a niche. There's not much meat on a squirrel, so I'd be surprised if farming squirrel takes off anywhere some time soon.'
Kevin Viner, former chef-proprietor of Pennypots, the first Michelin-starred restaurant in Cornwall, who now runs Viners bar and restaurant at Summercourt, believes it will remain a niche market. But with a plentiful supply of meat - there are estimated to be almost five million grey squirrels in Britain - there is room for the market to expand.
Viner - who comes from a rural 'if you shot it, you ate it' background - said the trick was to serve squirrel fresh and not to leave it hanging like other game. 'It looks a lot like rabbit, though it is a drier meat and slightly firmer. Most of the meat comes off the rear leg. The loins are so thin they need much shorter cooking time,' he said.
'A large squirrel would be enough for one-and-a-half people. The public really are being drawn to it. I think that it's because it is being perceived as a healthy meat. Southern fried squirrel is good. And tandoori style works. It is especially tasty fricasséed with Cornish cream and walnuts. But the one everyone seems to like is the Cornish squirrel pasty.'
And his own favourite recipe? 'I must admit, I'm a beef man myself,' he said. 'But my huntsman swears by squirrel with sausage meat and bacon.'
How to make squirrel pasties
Kevin Viner's recipe for two pasties
140g squirrel meat cut into 1cm cubes;
100g sliced potato; 100g sliced swede; 50g diced onion; 30g smoked bacon;
15g chopped hazelnuts; 75g butter;
5g chopped parsley; a good pinch of salt and pepper
Method
· Egg wash edges of pastry circles.
· Place the potato, swede, hazelnuts, parsley and seasoning on to each circle followed by the bacon, squirrel meat and, finally, the onion.
· Place butter in each pasty, then fold over the pastry and crimp the edges.
· Put the pasties on to a greaseproof baking tray, egg wash both pasties well, place in a pre-heated oven at 180C or gas mark 5.
· Bake for 45-50 minutes. The juices should start to boil and the pasties should be able to move on the tray with ease.
SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- A man who has spent the past two years living in a treehouse has a new, terrestrial home just in the nick of time, thanks to neighbors.
David Csaky pulls up the ladder to his treehouse in Seattle, Washington, on Saturday.
David "Squirrelman" Csaky, a self-taught carpenter, learned Tuesday that neighbors had found an aging recreational vehicle for him to occupy.
"I'm overwhelmed," Csaky said. "I started crying when they told me."
For two years, Csaky, 52, has lived about 30 feet above the ground on city land, on a 300-square-foot platform that he built, accessible by a ladder counterweighted with sandbags on pulleys.
Csaky outfitted the treehouse with a tent, wood stove, three chairs, shelves and a counter with an unplumbed sink. His pets include Lucky, a rat; Rainbow, a ferret; and Tilt, a squirrel. 
He was lately threatened with eviction because the treehouse is a health and safety concern.
Brandon Ferrante, 28, and Maria Bolander, 27, who befriended him after watching the treehouse take shape, found an aging 22-foot RV online after they learned of Csaky's situation.
"It broke our hearts," Ferrante said. "He's taken care of the neighborhood. We couldn't sleep at night. We decided to make it happen."
They and their landlords, Janet Yoder and husband Robby Rudine, agreed to buy the rig for $500 after the owner offered a special "Squirrelman" discount.
"David's a unique character but a good neighbor," Yoder said.
After delivering the RV Tuesday evening, owner Timothy Custer decided instead to sell it to Csaky for a penny.
"It's Dave's new house," Custer said.
To make the house a home, Ferrante said, the task is now to find a permanent parking place.
"We don't want to see it get towed," he said.
Csaky, who got his nickname for his ability to tame squirrels, said he was amazed at the public attention, including television and radio interviews and talk show appearances.
"This is the beginning of a new life," he said.
Squirrel Girl and Monkey Joe took out a pair of muggers threatening Doorman and Flatman, after which the two GLA'ers invited her to join. When they ok'd Monkey Joe joining as well, she agreed, and she almost instantly joined them on a mission to investigate an alarm.
...
Doorman apologized soon after, revealing that he was trying to scare away new members to prevent their deaths. She then offered him a nut from her nutsack.
