Squirrels

The last-minute cancellation of the Giant Village New Year's Eve celebration in downtown Los Angeles didn't just throw people's Saturday night plans into disarray. In some cases, it disrupted lives, as in the case of the man set to propose to his girlfriend from the stage. Some disappointed, angry ticket-holders are talking about a class-action lawsuit against the organizer, whose home address and phone number were posted on the Web by disgruntled fans.

An explosion in the ground squirrel population is driving Santa Monica officials a little nutty. The city is under order from the Los Angeles County health department to reduce the number of the chubby rodents in a popular seaside park, to lessen the chance of people contracting plague. But some local residents, unhappy with the lethal-bait boxes at the 26-acre Palisades Park, fear that pets and wildlife are being put at risk.

Whatever Tim Burton wants, Tim Burton gets. And for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," which opens Friday, the iconoclastic director requested real squirrels -- 100, to be exact -- for a pivotal scene in the nut-sorting department in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. The 100 squirrels are perched on tiny stools where they evaluate each nut by both scent and sound.

Few animals enliven high Sierra Nevada meadows quite like the energetic little Belding's ground squirrels, which whistle loudly at passing hikers all summer long. Because they often stand perfectly upright like the pickets -- or hitching posts -- used to tether horses, they have the common nickname "picket pins." Males first emerge from melting snowbanks in late spring.

OK, it's not going to win any Webby awards for graphic design. In fact, if not for the occasional Orvis or Ducks Unlimited banner here and there, you're lucky to get any color at all. The attraction at Outdoorsbest is its one-stop shopping for detailed information in virtually any fin and game activity. Collected here are forums on hunting, fishing and shooting sponsored by a variety of publications.

You mentioned how to get rid of a lot of critters, but how can you get rid of rats? I have a small dog, so I have to be careful. I liked your ideas of a rubber snake or things that are not poisonous. Jill Gish Oak Park Loved your article. Would like some additional insight, if possible: I have a number of wild rabbits who have turned my lawn -- marathon grass -- into their personal salad bowl. Besides the toy snakes you recommend, do you have any other helpful hints geared to rabbit control?

The four-story Casa Grande Ruins, the hand-built centerpiece of a prehistoric Hohokam Indian village, have baked under Arizona's desert sun and withstood its rains for perhaps seven centuries. But now, even as the ruin made of concrete-like clay becomes an island surrounded by urban development, those walls face an unlikely threat from the air and ground: birds and squirrels.

Tim BURTON manages nearly every possible filmmaking trick in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory": a candy palace that melts, a single Oompa-Loompa who's cinematically cloned into a fleet of miniature workers and specially trained squirrels that crack walnuts on cue. There's just one thing the director can't control on this fall morning: the dreary English weather.

An Anaheim pest control firm violated the law when it distributed poison bait to kill squirrels along a stretch of the Santa Ana River Trail in Huntington Beach, the Orange County Agricultural Commission said Friday. Workers for Pest Options did not follow the label directions for the poison, diphacinone, which called for using special boxes or other alternatives to ensure that dogs and cats can't eat the deadly bait, said county Agricultural Commissioner Rick LeFeuvre.

After complaints from pet owners, the Orange County Agricultural Commission has prohibited a pest control company from using a poison bait to kill squirrels along a stretch of the Santa Ana River Trail in Huntington Beach unless special boxes are used to ensure that dogs and cats can't get in them. Owners reported no illnesses in their pets, but many took exception that the company had been putting the chemically treated pellets where pets could reach them.