In article , wrote:

On Sun, 30 May 2004 19:48:23 GMT, Jim Elbrecht
wrote:

(paghat) wrote:


-snip-
Squirrels are highly territorial.

The most common squirrel in my part of the world [upstate NY] is the
Eastern Grey. These buggers are gregarious if the food supply will
support them.

A good description of these critters is at
http://spot.colorado.edu/~halloran/sq_grey.html


This article states that the grey squirrel is non-territorial. And
I'm 99% sure I have a grey-squirrel issue. My current plan is to
trap and relocate them.

The articlt cited simultaneously states that each Grey squirrel's
territory is 5 hectares (within a 40 hectare forest of overlapping
territories), which is a great deal larger than my memory had recalled.
Five hectares is over ten thousand acres! Pretty damned big piece of
territory to be required by a non-territorial animal.

An "overpopulation" of grey squirrels would be nine per hectare, still not
a great many squirrels.

But of N.A. squirrel species, Greys are the most tolerant of each other --
in a resource-rich environment their territories will shrink dramatically.
In a more natural woodland environment however each squirrel would patrol
five thousand acres of which a core of a thousand acres is inviolate to
other squirrels; the rest of their acreage will overlap peaceably with
other territories, as could not happen with a red squirrel population or
with our local douglas squirrel which beat the living crap out of
interlopers.

Territoriality being defined in degree of aggression & willingness to maim
or kill rivals to defend a territory, Grey Squirrels are let off the hook.
They ARE territorial enough to displace all other species of squirrels
from the expanding range of the Greys, but they do this without physically
attacking other squirrels; other species, being more aggressive, literally
worry & fret thesmelves out of house & home by being constantly willing to
fight something bigger that will neither budge nor fight back. But even
without attacking other species or each other TOO often, greys still
require & protect a territory within the larger number of overlapping
territories, & this area will be a few city blocks if inner city or near
parks or orchards, but a whopping two to ten thousand acres in a natural
forest area.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com