The Natural History of Tassel-Eared Squirrels

End Notes

169 End Notes O ne late summer morning, while walking through my study plots in the ponderosa pine forest at Lowell Observatory conducting a weekly census of squirrel herbivory activities, I noticed a young squirrel on the ground about 10 meters away. I stopped and we stared at each other. After a long minute of staring, the squirrel began to advance toward me in tiny bounds while I remained motionless. When the squirrel was within a meter of my location and just as I was ready to retreat to avoid being either bitten or scratched or both, the squirrel leaped onto the ponderosa pine adjacent to me and climbed quickly to my eye level. Though fearing being raked by the squirrel’s sharp claws, I was intrigued by this behavior so I remained in place. The squirrel showed no signs of fear, aggression, or agitation—only curiosity. We simply stared at each other, one species to another species. After a minute of eye-to-eye contact , the squirrel swirled around the tree and climbed to a higher branch, flicked its tail, and dismissed me to my duties. The future of the tassel-eared squirrels depends on Homo sapiens. We have contributed to the global warming of the Earth that affects the habitat of tassel-eared squirrels. Warmer temperatures in the southwestern United States coupled with drought conditions have led to an increase in bark beetle infestations that destroy the ponderosas. Large areas with standing dead trees provide excellent fuel sources for catastrophic wildfires, caused either by our carelessness or by lightning, that can destroy adjacent habitat. These landscape-size fires release even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, furthering the effects of global warming. We still allow the hunting of the Kaibab squirrels—yet to be counted! We have thinned forests in ways that do not leave essential canopy for tassel-eared squirrels. But, we now recognize the critical importance of the tassel-eared squirrel in management of forests, as harbingers of the healthy forest. The management indicator species 170 E N D N O T E S designation of the squirrel gives foresters a gauge for management of the forest and consequently the squirrels. We can continue to petition for protection of squirrels whose numbers have not been identified. We now recognize the perils of global warming with respect to its cascading effects on the Earth. [T]he welfare of the forests of ponderosa pine is the welfare of this squirrel. —Joseph Hall, “White tails and yellow pines,” 1967a ...