There was a time when every early morning, I’d see a family of squirrels scamper on the treetops above our yard. The squirrels would leap from one branch to the other, from one tree to the next, searching for something to eat.
The squirrels ate anything they’d find edible, from small fruits & seeds to leftover food our pet dogs & cats may leave behind. It was kind of a daily morning show to watch as many as four squirrels scamper overhead as I did my outdoor routines.
Sometimes when I drove off to work, I’d see a squirrel walking tightrope along a telephone cable just outside my home. The neighbourhood was the squirrels’ habitat; they had no boundaries.
I see only one (1) squirrel nowadays, a juvenile, I think, because of its relatively smaller size. The others were gone, presumed dead.
A neighbour told my sister he trapped and killed squirrels recently. They were pests, he said, because they ate the fruits from his trees.
The government’s Department of Natural Resources (DENR) secretary in 2020 stated that squirrels seen around the city were an invasive species; they didn’t belong in our neighbourhoods. The DENR believed the squirrels escaped from some irresponsible individuals who smuggled them in from faraway places and kept them as pets. The squirrels displace and endanger species endemic to the area as they compete for food otherwise meant for local animals.
The DENR, therefore, labelled squirrels as a threat. They were not to be approached as they carried viruses and germs. They were better off exterminated. As much as they looked cuddly with their cute eyes and bushy tails, the government warned the public not to feed or care for them. They were unwanted and undesirable. They were better off dead. There lied the logic of my neighbour who trapped and killed squirrels.
We consider rats, mice, and most insects as pests. Some birds, our dogs & cats, are also invasive species; they didn’t originate from my neighbourhood or even my country. Most of the poultry and livestock local farmers raise also came from other countries.
Every night, bats wake and fly to partake of the budding fruits and insects of our neighbourhood’s trees. By day, they sleep upside down on tree branches or in crevices. The trees don’t mind them, more like they welcomed them as bats help pollinate the flowers which bring about the fruits.
We also have bees, wasps, and various flies (e.g., dragonflies, butterflies, houseflies) buzzing in our yard. The bugs don’t bother us as long as we don’t bother them. The birds eat many of the bugs and so there are many bird species that reside in our neighbourhood.
The cats that live around my neighbourhood do capture and eat some of the birds and any unlucky rat or mouse. But I feed the cats enough food to discourage them from hunting the wildlife.
There are also frogs, lizards, salamanders, and snakes which we see occasionally and which hunt down bugs and rodents. We leave them alone, though I’d hear a scream now and then from someone seeing a snake.
Our yard is an active ecosystem. The wildlife happily live in our yard and we likewise happily live with them. Exceptions are the rodents and bugs (e.g., thermites, mosquitoes) who stray into my home; I pay an exterminator to get rid of them as soon as possible.
Why, then, is the DENR singling out the squirrel as an unwelcome species? We can see the good intention in warning us about the dangers of adopting squirrels as pets; otherwise, it seems unfair to classify them as invasive or harmful given all the native and no-so-native wildlife living all over the place.
It’s a given wildlife species migrate from place to place. It has been a part of the evolutionary history. It’s natural. Even we humans do a lot of migrating.
It’s understandable if we intervene to stop a species from wiping out another. Like killing rats to stop them from hunting down rare birds. Or spaying cats from multiplying to unmanageable numbers.
Squirrels, however, are wildlife. They are far from being pets. They live in the trees, and they take & eat only what they need. They are prey to predators just like other wild animals in our neighbourhood. They don’t bother the birds and they even eat pests like coconut-tree-eating beetles.
Squirrels are not invaders. They may be uninvited guests, certainly, but they had brought no harm to my neighbourhood. They, in fact, made my mornings more enjoyable as I had looked forward to seeing them.
The ignorant neighbour who trapped and killed squirrels didn’t want to share the fruits of his trees, never mind that other wildlife partook of them when he wasn’t noticing. He’d probably kill more wildlife if he found out.
The DENR secretary who classified squirrels as dangerous is also clueless of what the squirrels had contributed in the way of enriching my yard’s ecosystem.
I sigh at that one last squirrel I in the morning and I treasure every glimpse I could of it. Maybe someday, the squirrels would return; I’d look forward to it.
Ellery's Essays 