A couple photos of Minnie, our super friendly momma squirrel this afternoon. I sat down with her and a bowl of nuts and a camera. I think her babies were born in early January, so they are getting close to graduation to being independent squirrels if they haven't already. #squirrelsky
This is our older mother squirrel, Kari. Mother squirrels have certain cravings while they feeding babies. One is sunflower seeds. Kari spends a good 15-20 minutes every morning raiding the bird feeder from our little lemon tree.
As prey animals, squirrels have an incredible level of situational awareness. It's almost like they have eyes in the sides of their heads ... oh, wait.
Helllooooo humans, are you home?
😅
"You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other."
Who could resist this little sweetheart when she runs up to the door to get her pecan for the day? Yet some people see vermin instead. It reminds me of a line from movie _Contact_, when the alien tells Elly:
#SquirrelSky #squirrels
The opportunities for love in this world multiply when we expand it to include more than just members of our own species. A mother squirrel is dedicated to her young for three months. Her courage is impressive, making friends with a human, climbing fences, and dodging cars. The divine is within her.
This is the other mother squirrel visiting us this winter. She's nursing and feeling the urge to eat sunflower seeds, so she hopped into the hanging bird feeder with finch mix (sunflower, peanut, and safflower). I believe she is the daughter of our other mother squirrel, born last winter.
"The monk said, 'What did I do?'" lol
They are basically real life fairies. We have three feeders in LA, and they swarm and joust with each other all day during winter and spring.
One of the two mother squirrels visiting us this winter patiently let me stand around while she was eating and take photos of her. (She's normally not to keen on the attention.) #squirrelsky
The strongest friendships are usually with the mother squirrels who need better food sources that the male squirrels to nurse their young. They remember and come back when they've a new litter to raise. But I've met a couple male squirrels who were delightfully cheeky, smart, and friendly guys.
People often speaking of "feeding squirrels" like it's the same as feeding birds. No, I make friends with squirrels. They look at me, recognize me, run up to me like kids running to an ice cream truck. Well, a few of them do. The rest are sane wild animals that "know better" than walk up to a human.
One of the most common squirrels meme is the so-called "superhero landing" pose. If squirrels are this impressive when scratching their armpits, imagine there potential doing anything else?! #squirrelsky
That kind of intelligence is biological. It's purpose to ensure survival in a world that is always changing and throwing new obstacles at every generation of living things that are born into it. It requires flexibility, learning through "trial and error," and developing skills as needed.
Then there is "natural" intelligence: The ability to deal with new problems never encountered before, create a set of rules to follow to replicate lessons learned, and to leverage memory and problem solving to create new ideas. We see this kind of intelligence even in animals like squirrels.
What is intelligence, exactly? Is it merely knowledge, data points regurgitated at the right moment, following a set of predetermined rules mechanically? That's all computers, which are basically overwrought binary calculators, are capable of doing.
"Is this a nut canon? If so, I'm ready!"