Squirrels

Here's a summer reminder: Chipmunks and squirrels can carry infected fleas and plague, a bacterial disease people can contract through close contact with the furry animals, health officials warned. “Plague is naturally present in many parts of California, including higher elevation ... so we all need to be cautious around animals that can carry it,” El Dorado County Public Health Officer Dr. Alicia Paris-Pombo said in a statement Thursday. Because of the increased plague activity in the Tahoe Basin area last fall, El Dorado County health officials have been urging the public to take precaution this summer.

Banana Sam, a squirrel monkey who made headlines around the world in 2011 when he was kidnapped from the San Francisco Zoo, died at the age of 19 this week from complications related to heart disease, zoo officials said.  Banana Sam gained international fame after vandals cut two holes in the mesh of his enclosure at the zoo Dec. 30, 2011 and took off with the animal. A $5,000 reward was offered for his return. He was found two days later "shaking, hungry and cold" in a neighborhood near the zoo, officials said.

How can you keep squirrels and rats from raiding your citrus trees? The latest question for our SoCal Garden Clinic comes from reader Sandy Meyerowitz of Valley Glen: Brown squirrels and tree rats eat quite a lot of the fruit from my three large citrus trees: navel, blood and tangelo. The fruit that grows from these trees is very juicy and sweet, but unfortunately, the tops of these trees come very close to the roof of my house and the detached garage, so I am not sure there is an easy solution.

A day after he was carried out of the  Mendocino National Forest -- having survived nearly three weeks on his own -- 72-year-old Gene Penaflor described how "it all went dead" after falling down a canyon. He had separated from his deer hunting partner deep in the forest on Sept. 24 when he accidently stepped off the edge and fell "straight down" -- so straight, that he landed upright on his feet. "I thought my knee cap was broken," Penaflor told KTVU-TV  on Sunday.

As an instructor at College of the Canyons, I am extremely disturbed and saddened by the proposal to poison the campus squirrels. The anti-coagulant poison causes internal hemorrhaging and a slow, excruciating death. Animals linger in agony for up to two weeks before dying. Birds, hawks and other animals, including pets, are endangered. They eat the dead squirrels, or they eat the bait, which looks like food. Humane methods of removing squirrels are not as convenient as killing them off, but they are certainly kinder.

Even the squirrels in Rochelle Park, N.J., are INTO YELLOW RIBBONS. Nest-building rodents filched six yellow satin ribbons tied around a tree and telephone pole in front of the Borntrager house in this town near Hackensack. "We know they did it," said 15-year-old Thomas Borntrager, " 'cause one day my dad looked out the window and he saw the squirrel running with it up the tree and putting it in the nest."

In 1904, when soldiers from the Civil and Spanish-American wars settled into the Veterans Home in West Los Angeles, they brought Eastern fox squirrels with them as pets (or possibly as future dinners) from Kentucky and Tennessee. Last week in the Toluca Woods section of North Hollywood, Beverlee Nelson's prized apricot crop was nearly destroyed. What's the connection? The squirrels got loose in 1904, according to a recent blog post by Lila Higgins of the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park.

A day after he was carried out of the  Mendocino National Forest -- having survived nearly three weeks on his own -- 72-year-old Gene Penaflor described how "it all went dead" after falling down a canyon. He had separated from his deer hunting partner deep in the forest on Sept. 24 when he accidently stepped off the edge and fell "straight down" -- so straight, that he landed upright on his feet. "I thought my knee cap was broken," Penaflor told KTVU-TV  on Sunday.

[ Spermophilus lateralis ] In the Sierra Nevada and Northern California mountains, "copperheads" are inescapable. Also known as golden-mantled ground squirrels, these bold and curious rodents grow up to a foot long -- nose to tip of tail -- and scamper eagerly among campsites in search of handouts, making them a perennial favorite of (or nuisance to) visitors. In late summer, with winter looming, these bulging beggars panhandle relentlessly. With cheeks stuffed to the size of Ping-Pong balls, they dart around burying surplus in secret caches under logs and at tree bases.

For the second consecutive year, Los Angeles County health officials reported that ground squirrels in the San Gabriel Mountain foothills have tested positive for animal plague. The squirrels were found at a Charlton Flats picnic site in the Angeles National Forest, about 20 miles from La Canada, and in Camp Barley Flats, a county probation facility, health officials said.

SAN FRANCISCO - He shot squirrels in the head so their bodies would be intact for meals. He caught frogs, lizards and a two-foot brown snake, killing them with a rock and toasting them thoroughly so he would not get salmonella. Each night, before burying himself under rotting leaves, he carefully covered his fire with gravel to prevent it from spreading. Gene Penaflor made it through 19 days lost in the wilds of Northern California's Mendocino National Forest by going into "survival mode," his son, Gale Penaflor, 37, said Monday.

Forget about golf, the biggest story from the President's Cup this week has been Sammy the Squirrel. The rodent has become an overnight media star after snuggling with Tiger Woods and his girlfriend, skier Lindsey Vonn, at the Muirfield Village golf course in Ohio. Sammy became the American team's unofficial mascot on Thursday when assistant coach Davis Love III found it near the second hole and, fearing it might get trampled, scooped it up. The Americans were doing well against their competitors , the International team, so Love hung onto his new pal. "My dad always picked up sticks for good luck and he told me I had to keep it as long as we were winning holes," said Love, who is a hunter and outdoorsman.

Los Angeles County health officials confirmed this week that a trapped ground squirrel tested positive for plague, and as a precaution parts of the Angeles National Forest near Wrightwood have been closed. The areas closed, since 1 p.m. Wednesday, include the Twisted Arrow, Broken Blade and Pima Loops of the Table Mountain campgrounds. The areas will be closed for at least a week, according to a health advisory from the county Department of Public Health. "Plague is a bacterial infection that can be transmitted to humans through the bites of infected fleas, which is why we close affected campgrounds and recreational areas as a precaution while preventive measures are taken to control the flea population," Jonathan E. Fielding, head of the health department, said in the advisory.

Re "Shark catch fuels frenzy," June 5 The photo of the grinning anglers with their "prize" - a 1,300-plus-pound mako shark - should make any caring person feel physically ill. While there are a handful of well-publicized shark attacks around the world each year, humans pose the much bigger threat. We kill an estimated 100 million sharks every year, as was made shockingly clear in the "Shark Attack" infographic online that went viral a couple of months ago. Anglers may not want to hear this, but fishing is a cruel blood sport.

Here's a summer reminder: Chipmunks and squirrels can carry infected fleas and plague, a bacterial disease people can contract through close contact with the furry animals, health officials warned. “Plague is naturally present in many parts of California, including higher elevation ... so we all need to be cautious around animals that can carry it,” El Dorado County Public Health Officer Dr. Alicia Paris-Pombo said in a statement Thursday. Because of the increased plague activity in the Tahoe Basin area last fall, El Dorado County health officials have been urging the public to take precaution this summer.

For the last six years, the volunteer fire department of rural Holley, N.Y., has raised money for new equipment by sponsoring a hunting contest to see who could shoot the fattest squirrel. Other than some concerns that cheaters might pack squirrels with rocks before weigh-in, the event has always gone off without a hitch. Until now. This year, the squirrels have gone viral, and the social media campaign to stop Holley's seventh annual “Squirrel Slam” on Saturday has turned into full-fledged cultural warfare between Americans who feed squirrels and Americans who serve them in pot pies with sherried mushrooms.

They're just small rodents with long bushy tails. But an apparently grounded campaign to save the squirrel population at Antelope Valley College nonetheless has the people there acting kind of, well, squirrelly. There was supposed to be a sort of showdown Monday night at the regular meeting of the community college district's Board of Trustees over the college administration's efforts to exterminate the school's ground squirrels because of the holes they dig on campus.

When it comes to critters, Officer Chuck Nicoud has seen it all at the LAPD's Elysian Park academy: abandoned cats, pine cone-tossing squirrels and pushy chickens. Once, two guinea hens led an academy graduation march to an explosion of laughs. Recruits eventually pitched in to buy the pair a personalized doghouse. "It was hilarious," Nicoud said.

How can you keep squirrels and rats from raiding your citrus trees? The latest question for our SoCal Garden Clinic comes from reader Sandy Meyerowitz of Valley Glen: Brown squirrels and tree rats eat quite a lot of the fruit from my three large citrus trees: navel, blood and tangelo. The fruit that grows from these trees is very juicy and sweet, but unfortunately, the tops of these trees come very close to the roof of my house and the detached garage, so I am not sure there is an easy solution.

If the owl ever does fly the coop, what “it” critter is next? The indie craft artisans who caught the owl trend early and propelled it into mass-market stores are feeling foxy in a big way. A pointy-eared, whiskered portrait of cuteness is the top seller for Shannon Kennedy, a Long Beach artist who silk-screens animal prints under the studio name Sass & Peril. “People have been walking by and saying, 'The fox must be the new owl,'” Kennedy said from her booth at the Renegade craft market in downtown L.A. last weekend.