Black and Gray Squirrels in Our Yard



Black and gray squirrels love the seeds from the pine cones on our trees. Many stripped cones lay under the tall trees. 

Black squirrels, a variety of gray squirrels, were brought  to the Kent State campus in Kent, Ohio from Canada in 1961. They seemed few in number but they multiplied quickly. The spread of these darker colored squirrels was helped by my dad. He had two Chinese chestnut trees in his back yard and the squirrels were numerous in his yard. They ate holes in the soffits of his house and moved into the attic areas. He felt that there were way too many squirrels around. 

 As an independent businessman dad worked in many of the surrounding towns. He set Havahart traps in his yard and transported the black and gray squirrels to different towns as he did his business trips for the day. The black squirrels would have certainly spread to other areas on their own but certainly his actions caused them  to spread  much faster. It was probably not legal to do what he did  but the large number of destructive animals that invaded his yard led him to do that. 

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