So, I went out to try and shoot some squirrels, like everyone else on this forum. It's challenging here in Australia, as we don't have squirrels, but I thought I'd get some at the zoo maybe - just to prove we're part of the civilised world.
It was a tough day. There were squirrels everywhere but luck, misguidance and mischance seemed to get between me and the squirrel every time. Maybe it was because I had the K100D Super? Maybe they don't like the kit 55-300 because of the extra plastic. It's obviously a poor combo.

So, I started the day asking the keeper where the squirrels were. Helpfully he pointed me to this one...



I was so thrilled! Anyway, I showed it to some fellow zoo goers and they laughed a lot. Seems the keeper had been having a joke and this wasn't a squirrel.

I decided to Google a squirrel picture on my phone. While I was waiting I took a picture of an acorn, hoping to attract the squirrels with it....



Now I knew I was set to go. I started looking high because I know squirrels live in trees. Not being that tall I asked this guy for help - but he wouldn't talk.



Typical stuck-up, arty-type. Squirrels were beneath his dignity it seemed. And for a moment I thought that squirrels were below him. Looking down I found this guy - and he said he was a squirrel! Oh, joy!



I started to explain to him how much I 'd been wanting to shoot a squirrel and he finally broke down and told me that he was really just a squirrel impersonator. Apparently a lot of Meerkats make holiday money that way. At least he was honest. Seemed like a nice guy. So, I moved on, always hoping, and came across these mother-of-pearl squirrels in a treehouse. But they wouldn't agree to having their photo taken.



They're from a foreign country with major political problems and they just can't have their faces on the web for fear of reprisals because of their defection.

Then - finally - I saw a real squirrel. Looked just like the one on Google. Happy to have its picture taken. I was about to take a portrait and..... this bloody Lion ate it!



I mean, one minute it was posing as Marilyn Monroe in 'Some Like it Hot' and the next it's been swallowed. It just wasn't my day. I sat down and started to cry and this really nice Sun Bear came over looking really concerned and offered to share his lunch.



He pointed me in the direction of some animals he thought might be squirrels, but I'm not sure.



They didn't deny that they were squirrels but they didn't admit that they were and I was getting a little fixated by now. I decided that maybe I could make the day worthwhile by pretending I had some squirrel shots. So...I took this picture of a stick-squirrel...



..and this one of a shifty-eyed squirrel (related to Otis he said).



But I knew I wasn't fooling anyone - not even me. I took to asking around again and this guy checked with his friends...



...but all they had to say was, "What colour is a squirrel's butt". That wasn't much help. So I went to ask the Mandril - who looked pretty wise (albeit a bit nutty)...



..but got really quite aggressive when I asked him what colour a squirrel's butt was. (I thought I was being culturally sensitive).



Some people have no patience. I moved on. This next bird had seen a squirrel but it had been a bad experience.



The squirrel had mistaken her headpiece for a nut and gnawed at it. She didn't seem all that keen on seeing any more squirrels. Except dead ones. She wasn't talking to her neighbours either. The Pelicans...



...had taken to wearing orange 'Save the Squirrel' bands on their legs in protest at the Cassowary. I mean...does the fighting ever cease? Why can't we all just get along?

Anyway, finally I found my squirrel. Albeit disguised as a Panda.



He said it was for safety. I guess that Cassowary is pretty scary. What convinced me of his story was his capacity for pretty slick dance moves...



...high fives...



...and the classic, winning, squirrel smile.



Unfortunately, just as we were having a nice chat, the cassowary turned up and the squirrel ran and hid in a pile of grass. Bad move! Disaster!!!



Hungry Hippo just doesn't cover it. The squirrel never stood a chance.

And thus - tight and true as a drum - ends my tale.



And that's some tail!

[crewl1]

Oldie but a goodie - thanks for resurrecting. Good work Jesses Dad.

[normhead]

Great shots and story!
edit: Two year old thread, fyi!

Ya but somebody "discovered it." A timeless story, as relevant today as when it was written.

[Jessesdad]

Well thanks, folks. As paulh says, this is a pretty old thread that has been resurrected thanks to the enduring mystique of Rupert and Otis!! I'd forgotten about it myself.
Must drag the K100D Super out again though....

[Rupert]

Well, I have to say you did an excellent job, those are really quality shots. Proves the K100D is one of the best cameras ever, and that lens is no joker either. You didn't do too bad either!

I regret that your quest was not successful, if you had just asked I could have sent you a big box of squirrels, there are dozens in my yard at any given time, and hundreds (or more) back in the Woods of Otis. Or...if you are ever in this area you are welcome to come shoot all the squirrels you want with that K100D...Otis even said he will pose for you, after all, your shooting is better than mine!

Regards!

[JeffAHayes]

Happy to have been "of service" in reviving this thread. You can REALLY thank one of the posters over at DPReview for his post of a gray squirrel relaxing on a rock, and saying it was to honor "the squirral guy," which made me ask, and then had Dean answer, and he said to Google the subject, which led me to this thread. Lemme see... I have fairly recent shots of both Tater Tot (head-crop only) and one of my squirrels eating corn on the cob on a dedicated squirrel feeder I put on a tree (keeps 'em off the bird feeders, but they're hard to keep stocked, so I don't bother half the time). No shots of either "posing" with the other, though. They just DON'T get along like that. I just let Tater Tot out this morning and there were both squirrels AND chipmunks scattering in every direction as he chose one, in particular, to pursue. It's a shame he can't climb trees, because he WOULD catch one if he could -- he comes VERY CLOSE on the ground, as it is -- especially when one is silly enough to stay on the ground too long in the chase, rather than scampering up a tree first chance it gets.

My elderly mom (she's 82, now) always said I should "be careful" and not let him catch a squirrel, that it might hurt him if it bit him. She just doesn't get it! He's half Jack Russell. And even at only 15 pounds, he still outweighs the average gray squirrel by about 10-1. They're MINCE MEAT when and if he catches them! Jack Russells were BRED to catch rats and other small rodents. I've seen what he does to a house mouse when he catches one. It AIN'T pretty.

Anyway, here's Tater Tot and one of my squirrels...

OMG that was A CHORE! I had to post WITHOUT the pics (and it wasn't a very friendly post, at that, after spending an hour trying). Then I decided to see if editing the post would fix it, and it did. Glad I tried.

I'm looking at the preview above. Trust me, as cute as that gray squirrel looks gnawin' on that ear of corn (he IS adorable, ain't he?) when they EMPTY two BIG bird feeders (one of which is pretty squirrel resistant, the other containing safflower seed, which no SENSIBLE SQUIRREL is supposed to like eating) in about three days, well, ya just wanna GO FIND RUPERT!
Jeff

[Rupert]

I just got this message from the Woods of Otis, apparently they are cruising the site and came across your post....

Dear Rupert, you old fool....( they always address me that way)
We are getting a strong craving for a big Tater Tot. If we find one around here, he's toast!
Regards!
Devil Squirrel


Russian killer squirrels eat dog in park

You might want to rethink letting Tater Tot out after dark...just sayin'!

Regards!
Rupert

BTW- Of the biggest myths on earth, like the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, Yeti, UFOs, Sasquatch, etc ....none of them is a bigger myth than "Squirrel Proof Feeder" . My squirrels crack ribs laughing every time they see it in print! Me too!

[Michael Piziak]

Goes to show that one doesn't need the latest and greatest Pentax dslr. The k100d photos here are excellent !

[OnTheWeb]

So, I went out to try and shoot some squirrels, like everyone else on this forum. It's challenging here in Australia, as we don't have squirrels, but I thought I'd get some at the zoo maybe - just to prove we're part of the civilised world.
It was a tough day. There were squirrels everywhere but luck, misguidance and mischance seemed to get between me and the squirrel every time. Maybe it was because I had the K100D Super? Maybe they don't like the kit 55-300 because of the extra plastic. It's obviously a poor combo.

So, I started the day asking the keeper where the squirrels were. Helpfully he pointed me to this one..

Great series! Too bad you didn't have a decent lens

[JeffAHayes]

I just got this message from the Woods of Otis, apparently they are cruising the site and came across your post....

Dear Rupert, you old fool....( they always address me that way)
We are getting a strong craving for a big Tater Tot. If we find one around here, he's toast!
Regards!
Devil Squirrel


Russian killer squirrels eat dog in park

You might want to rethink letting Tater Tot out after dark...just sayin'!

Regards!
Rupert

BTW- Of the biggest myths on earth, like the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, Yeti, UFOs, Sasquatch, etc ....none of them is a bigger myth than "Squirrel Proof Feeder" . My squirrels crack ribs laughing every time they see it in print! Me too!

ACK, Rupert!!! I FINALLY get to hear from (read from?) the (IN?)famous Rupert, only to have him threaten (sort of), by proxy, my dear little Tater Tot via his local squirrels, of whom he appears to have been co-opted and now some sort of spokesperson(squirrel?) for them. Has so many years of rounding them up and shooting them in the head made YE "squirrely?" Or perhaps ye ate one too many squirrels -- maybe brains and all -- and now ye have "mad squirrel disease," which I imagine would be sort of like mad cow disease, except you'd run around in circles chattering and chasing other people, then sort of lean back and hold your arms down in front of you, look around, and act like you OWN all you survey. Maybe you even now climb trees and yell profanities at passersby as you also throw nuts and small sticks at them?

Along THOSE lines, I DO have a REAL squirrel aggression story of my own, from my OWN personal experience to relate (one that got aggressive with ME -- and at the time I was 350 pounds, or so, and 6'1", which I've been my whole adult life!)... I was standing near a little 60-gallon pre-form pond I'd installed, shooting some photos with what was then my PRIMO camera (the Panasonic DMC Lumix FZ10, with a flat F 2.8 12x zoom lens -- it was pretty good for its day, but low-light photography was NIL, and there was NO focus-assist light, plus everything above ISO 100 showed increasing noise). It was around the first of October 10 years ago this coming fall and I noticed a gray squirrel coming directly towards me. When it got maybe 8-10 feet away it stopped, stood up on its hind legs, sort of "balled up" its front legs in what looked EXACTLY LIKE a boxing stance, and gave me a nasty look as if to say "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Then it continued forward, heading STRAIGHT at me! Needless to say, I MOVED out of its way! I'd been standing right in front of a good-sized pine tree, and after the squirrel passed me, it climbed that tree to the lowest limb, maybe 10 feet up, and proceeded to SCOLD ME with incessant chattering for the remainder of the time I was out there. I truly believe if I hadn't moved that squirrel would have attacked me!

I have a picture of that SOMEWHERE on my hard drive, but it seems every time I go looking for it I can't find it (as was the case just now, when I spent half an hour or more doing searches before giving up). When I find it, I'll post it. It's FUNNY. It shows the squirrel with "his dukes up" in the boxing stance.

As for the "no squirrel-proof feeder" myth, that's not ENTIRELY TRUE, Rupert. The first picture below is of a TRUE squirrel-proof feeder. They're NOT cheap; they're heavy; but they work. It's painted stainless steel (or maybe aluminum) with a spring-loaded bird perch that won't accept the weight of a squirrel. There's an adjustment on that which can be used to make the perch accept lighter or heavier loads, as well. Admittedly, there ARE plastic windows in the front for viewing how much seed is left that, given the right opportunity, a smart or lucky squirrel may be able to chew through. BUT, when and if that happens, all I need to do is put a piece of sheet metal on the inside covering where the windows were and it will solve that problem. I can still tell when the feeder is empty.



The shot below is of a squirrel-resistant feeder. OBVIOUSLY it's not "squirrel-proof," as they CAN get parts of their bodies in there. The holes in the grates, however, aren't big enough for most squirrels to get their heads through, and the feeding ports are pretty well recessed. All the same, the squirrels have gotten pretty good at reaching through the bars and into those ports with their paws, then pulling out seed -- most of which falls to the catch basin at the bottom -- and then just going to the bottom and pulling it to the edge to feed. Not sure WHAT I'm gonna do about it. For a long time they didn't bother it much, but now they "go to town" on it.



As for the talk about "carnivorous squirrels," MANY rodents are omnivorous. We all know that rats are. Well, many tree squirrels are, as well. They're well known to raid bird nests for their eggs. Even worse, the ultra-cute flying squirrels (not sure if you have them in Europe; we have them here, though, and they're adorable), are VICIOUS predators! Their ability to glide from one tree to another, as well as to climb them very well, makes them WELL suited to get into both bird nests and bird houses. And they're small enough to get into just about ANY bird house, even those with the smallest of openings. As American bluebirds once were in decline (and are beautiful birds), it became popular for Americans to put up bluebird houses, which many folks have learned to put away from fences or trees and put baffles below the boxes on the poles to deter snakes and other predators such as racoons. BUT, flying squirrels are essentially IMPOSSIBLE to keep out. And they eat what they can get, animal or vegetable. They're not to not only eat the eggs, but also the young. And if they happen to catch the parent(s) in the nest, they will often kill and eat THEM, as well (even though they may not be any bigger than the birds, they're much stronger)... So, yaneverknow. Animals do what they need to in order to survive. Perhaps those black squirrels in Russia were doing just that.

A neighbor told me they saw "a big black snake" crawl out of my yard recently, then back in. That describes the black rat snake, which would be eating not only rats and mice, but also all manner of rodents, including squirrels. The fact that I continue to have SCADS of gray squirrels and also see a fair number of chipmunks -- even with me having a sweet little puppydog who never hurt a fly (but will tear a rodent to smithereens ) I regularly let out -- MUST mean that either their reproductive rate is THROUGH the roof, or that snake was just "a visitor."
Jeff

[Rupert]

First, let me say that "shoot the messenger" is not going to make any difference to Otis or his Army of Squirrels. I only pass along what I am told, and am not responsible for how it might affect your handsome little puppy's ego.
It is quite possible that too many years of "squirrel dwelling" has affected my mental condition, but then again, if it has, how would I know?

You were lucky with that squirrel that challenged you, they go for the eyes first, so you could have been typing your post on braille......just sayin'!

Around here, I don't go out when the Devil Squirrel is around, it just isn't smart. Even Otis can't call him off if he goes berserk, which he does quite often. Not unusual to see him attack a stray dog or cat, and the horrible scream he can let out usually frightens them half to death...it runs chills down my spine!


As for your steel vault of a feeder, it is a formidable force...for a while. My neighbor had two of them. I say "had" because the squirrels eventually figured them out and kept them constantly empty, so she gave up and now feeds squirrels regularly to keep them from eating up her precious plants and the trim on her house. I know how they figured out how to defeat those feeders like yours, I watched them do it........but Otis says if I tell you he will have to kill me!

Best Regards!
Rupert

[JeffAHayes]

As for your steel vault of a feeder, it is a formidable force...for a while. My neighbor had two of them. I say "had" because the squirrels eventually figured them out and kept them constantly empty, so she gave up and now feeds squirrels regularly to keep them from eating up her precious plants and the trim on her house. I know how they figured out how to defeat those feeders like yours, I watched them do it........but Otis says if I tell you he will have to kill me!

Best Regards!
Rupert

There IS a way... The squirrel(s) can get ON TOP of the feeder, and IF they can hang on well enough, they can hang upside-down and reach down into the feeding trough and get some seed out. Even then, however, this latest model I have has only a very narrow opening for the seeds, so they wouldn't be able to get much at one time, probably not enough to make it worth their while. A PRIOR, very similar model my late father bought 25 years or so ago had a WOODEN perch and they pretty much chewed that away, thus lightening the load and making it less functional. For all intents and purposes, though, the green feeder above IS "squirrel-proof," though.

By the way, back when you were on your continual hunts, weren't you living in England, some sort of Lord, or something? Your info says you're in TEXAS, now. That would seem like MAJOR culture shock, PLUS you moved to where the gray squirrels are REALLY native (at least in EAST Texas, according to Wikipedia). Our Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) -- there's also a WESTERN Gray Squirrel that's bigger, but much more shy to humans and has a MUCH smaller range -- not only inhabit most of the Eastern half of America and parts of Canada (and were imported to GB AND South Africa), but some were also transplanted to San Francisco and various other parts of the American and Canadian west, where they ALSO thrive. They really ARE "tree rats," huh?

So let me get this straight, Rupert. Is Otis a dog, or that "devil squirrel" you keep posting? Or maybe your Sciurus-shooting partner?
Jeff

[45 Mike]

Very creative use of narrative to make a series of zoo pictures much much more!
Sometimes post processing has nothing to do with the pixels!

I applaud and salute your imaginative and unique posting!
Well done.

[micromacro]

Squirrels are nice! Just saying...

[PeggyR]

Oh my goodness...after a rough day at work, this is exactly what I needed: good photos and a good laugh! Thanks

[Rupert]

Squirrels are nice! Just saying...

Great shot! Shows the softer side of those handsome squirrels! Micro.....Anytime you post a squirrel shot, anywhere, sign off on it with your WSSA # and it will count as "Dues" and make you eligible for those prizes Otis will be giving out over the next year. Not sure what the prizes will be, but I did make him eliminate a "box of baby squirrels" as one of the prizes, so have no fear of that!

Regards!