Hi. How are ya?
I enjoy watching the squirrels in our yard. They chase each other up and down trees, jump from limb to limb and have a quirky manner about them that’s just funny.
But, did you know these industrious little rodents are not native to California? From my Internet research, it looks like our squirrels are Fox Squirrels and were introduced here from the east.
Actually, studies trace the Fox Squirrel’s migration to southern California to 1904. Civil War veterans living at the Sawtelle VA facility in West Los Angeles brought Fox Squirrels from their homes in the Mississippi Valley. I don’t know whether the veterans considered the squirrels pets or snacks. But, somehow the rodents got loose and the rest is history.Fox Squirrels liked it in southern California — nice weather, year ’round food, lots of neighborhood trees, no natural enemies. Kind of squirrel heaven.
So they expanded outward from Sawtelle — north, south, east and west — travelling tree to tree, over utility lines and along open space corridors. Squirrel experts have studied and mapped expansion of the Fox Squirrel from their introduction at Sawtelle. According to the study, Fox Squirrels arrived in Pasadena in the 1970’s.These squirrels seem to much a natural part of the environment in Pasadena, it is strange to think they’re really an introduced species and that there was a time, not so far away, when they didn’t live here at all.
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