Spring
A boat, no rudder
The banks
My parents laughing
The water, the sun and the green
A cow smiling
A cultivated field
Drains
The ground, the poison, the water
Civilization
An almost perfect moment
Some mornings, I run. I live in town, so I usually run through the green spaces I'm offered, that is to say the city park and the seashore (ok there's worse, but there's also better). And some rare times, I meet a squirrel. This furtive and magic appearance makes me wonder: where does it come from? Is it well at home in my town ?
Nothing better to wake your body and mind up than the sea sprays and the sun rays, the songs of birds and the sounds of … cars… It's however a real pleasure for me, I observe the tides, the seasons, the birds' movements, and more rarely … the squirrels' ! Last morning, on the coast's road, a red squirrel (the squirrel on the picture below is the one I met in Bryce Canyon's, who attacked me by surprise for food) crossed the road at 100 miles an hour (I would have lost the race !) to finally find a shelter in the sea rocks.
Most of the time, when I perceive one, it's because it crosses the roads and hardly gets run over by a car (though the fittings out of some "squirrel rope bridges" by the city services), or because the way it moves surprises me. The last one acted like a rat.
While running, I came thinking about the squirrel's place in my city. Meeting this animal is always funny, it gives you the banana as we say in french. Actually, I wouldn't have kept this dumb smile if I had met a rat (affected as I am by my culture and history). Yet this nice creature can be as damaging as his cousin the rat !
In some places, it proliferates and creates considerable damages, the french magazine Science et Avenir recently reported that native red squirrels in England were facing extinction since the human introduction of grey squirrels coming from America, that are stronger when it's time to fight for food and to share viruses.
Where does my running fellow comes from ? the first time I told I saw one in the city park, no-one believed me. There must be more than one now, as I look less foolish now. Is this squirrel endemic ? Has it been introduced, re-introduced in this park created or maintained by humans ? Could it be harmful for other species if it's not from here (by the way, what does mean "being from here" ?)?*
I learned on the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle's website that The state and evolution of the species are badly known
but that red squirrels have been living in France for millions of years, that they were used to move on the ground to find some food and that they were under threat from ongoing habitat fragmentation, the introduction of other species, and… car crashes.
I can't think of my buddy as the last of a long line of three million years settled squirrels and I would easily bet for the hand of a human being settling its great grandparents here to please young and elder walkers, but I now have the answers to my questions and I can pose my running shoes until the next outing.
Next time, we will wander if Yorkshire Terriers had ever existed wild. See you !
*Caution: any relation with humanist or humanitarian consideration would be hazardous, every woman or men has the right to take refuge wherever she/he decides on earth, wherever she/he comes from.