… In February 1961, Larry Woodell, superintendent of university grounds, along with Davey Tree expert Biff Staples, brought ten cages full of black squirrels back from Ontario, Canada, and released them on campus.
In early March of 1961, the men made another trip to a park in London, Ontario, to get more squirrels. By 1964, about 150 black squirrels were already occupying the area.
Lowell Orr, biological science professor emeritus and vertebrate zoologist at Kent State since 1956, said he remembers when the first black squirrels were brought to Kent. He said he now sees up to seven or eight at any given time in his backyard.
“I enjoy them,” Orr said. “I think they are delightful, excellent animals, and they give our university a little bit of notoriety.”
Orr said he is glad people have come to associate the university with the black squirrels.
“They are very, very successful, and they have spread far from Kent,” Orr said. “From the original few that were introduced, they have spread into the many cities around Kent, and I’m rather proud of that.”
… Geoff Westerfield, research technician for the Ohio Division of Wildlife… [said] “Environmentally, what they eat isn’t really a problem. … Socially, it can become a problem when they come up to people on campus asking for junk food… ”
… Westerfield said while squirrels do get into some trouble, they are not worse than any other rodent. He said most damage tends to be chewed wires, holes in walls, stripping bark off trees and in some cases, causing arcs in transmission lines, which leads to power outages or transformers blowing up….
August 5th, 2009 at 7:51PM
Princeton is also known for its black squirrels. When they were in Lazienki Park in Warsaw several years ago, my daughters saw the orange-red squirrels there and thought it might be a good idea to smuggle one or two back to Princeton in the hope of producing some orange and black hybrids, which would make the alumni think a miracle had occurred. Luckily this idea did not get past the speculation stage.
August 5th, 2009 at 8:38PM
Bardzo smiszne, Peter.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:30AM
I believe science people call this an introduced species. Not always such a good idea.
In the UK the grey squirrel is hunted down and killt. These pesky introduced ‘murrican types have overrun the noble Red Squirrel.
This is the tragic result.
Eat The Enemy: Invasive Squirrel Introduced As ‘Ethical Food’ In UK Butcher Shops
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 05.12.08
"We are left to wonder what Beatrix Potter would have said to Curry of Squirrel Nutkin?"
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/05/eat-the-enemy-eastern-squirrel-uk.php