Listen Here
By Victoria Hansen
hansenv@findlay.edu
They’re in the trees. They’re on the porches. On two separate occasions, they’ve been in power transformers. Everywhere you look at the University of Findlay, you see squirrels.
Recently, the campus community’s love of squirrels has reached new levels as growing infrastructure for the creatures pops up.
On the south side of campus, visitors to Campus Security and Lovett Residence Hall might notice a pint-sized picnic table for local wildlife.
“We try to keep up with feeding the squirrels that come around,” William Spraw, chief of police and director of security at UF, wrote in an email interview. A former officer took a liking to the rodents and began leaving peanuts outside the door for them.
“We used to just place the peanuts on the sidewalk outside of the office,” Spraw said. “It would get messy so we moved them to the table off the sidewalk.”
The first taker from the picnic table was a squirrel aptly named Peanut. Peanut is bolder than many other squirrels on campus, willing to walk up to strangers and even follow people he recognizes to their cars.
“If you stand outside long enough and he is around, he has been known to come up to you and tap on your foot, letting you know he would like peanuts,” Spraw said. “He is also known to stare at us through the door or even tap on the glass at us.”
Peanut is not the only demanding squirrel at UF. Heading north from Security, the Animal Science House also features a small picnic table for passing patrons supplied by Erin Best, the administrative assistant for the College of Sciences. When the offices closed for winter break, regular patrons of the picnic table grew restless.
Right before Best left for winter break, a faculty member called her on a Saturday evening to inform her of a break-in at her office. A squirrel had gotten into her office from a hole in the wall and managed to get stuck inside the wall.
“It broke plants, scattered dirt and paperwork everywhere, making a terrible mess,” wrote Best in an email interview. “I came in the next day to clean, and I could hear it running in the walls. It was in the walls and vents for a few days until I heard it in the kitchen sink cabinet.”
When Best approached the cabinet to return the squirrel to its natural habitat, it escaped from under the baseboards.
“It ran around the Christmas tree in the kitchen, ran into the bathroom and unrolled toilet paper, climbed the blind then ran out the back door with a little assistance from a faculty member,” Best said.
Later that day, a second squirrel was found loitering underneath the conference table.
“I decided to stop feeding them so much or at least throw the peanuts out into the grassy area,” Best concluded.
Not all the squirrels proved as difficult, however.
“My recent favorite one is named Georgia,” Best said. “She is very gentle and takes peanuts right from my hand. She started to lose some fur too but has since recovered.” Georgia is not the only squirrel who struggled with mange, as Tiny Tim, who lost all his hair due to mange, also made a full recovery.
The squirrels have become a favorite with students, but faculty is split on the treatment of the squirrels.
“The Animal Science faculty have asked me several times to stop feeding the squirrels. I just tell them that the students love to see them sitting at the table,” Best said.
“If you’re trying to do it to be nice the squirrels, it may have negative consequences on the offspring,” said Benjamin Dolan, professor of biology at UF. “If you’re doing it because you want to see squirrels, that is personal preference.”
The squirrel population on UF’s campus is split about 50/50 between the grey and the fox squirrel. The fox squirrel is notable for its grey body and reddish-brown tail. Grey squirrels are harder to spot on campus, not because they’re rare, but because of a morph that leaves many of them black.
“Anywhere you go in Ohio, where you have them (black squirrels), someone has a story about them being imported from Canada by some person,” said Dolan. “I’ve heard it was the president before Doctor Fell, Doctor Freed who brought them from a trip to Canada, which is not true.”
“He did not drive from Canada with squirrels in his car to introduce them to campus.”
This story echoes a piece of Kent State lore, in which a groundskeeper introduced 10 black squirrels from Ontario to Kent State’s campus, where they have since become a mascot.
A 2019 study suggests that black-colored gray squirrels are more common in urban areas due to being more able to hide from predators and counterintuitively being more visible on pavement, reducing roadkill chances.
Mascot, nuisance, or genetic anomaly, the squirrels have staked their claim on campus. But if you’re going to feed them, maybe throw your food farther from the door, unless you want an unexpected visitor.
