The Cellar - Wildlife, living next to nature

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- - Wildlife, living next to nature (http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=29992)

Northern Hawk Owl gives no fucks...

of course not. It can levitate.

She said the bear was calm, but they drugged it anyway. Good idea, a bear that size will fuck you up.

Bald squirrel in Britain. See why they're called tree rats.
http://cellar.org/2015/treerat.jpg

Quote:

A bald squirrel that has evaded capture by animal experts concerned it could freeze has been caught on camera.
The unusual creature was spotted in Grove Park, Dunstable, where Bedfordshire Wildlife Rescue has spent the past fortnight searching for it.
Dr Helen McRobie, a lecturer in biomedical science at the Anglia Ruskin University, said its lack of hair is probably caused by a genetic defect.
"This is very rare, I have been studying squirrels for years but I have never come across one without any hair," she said.
"Sadly, the squirrel is probably not going to survive the winter if it remains at large. It needs to be kept in the warm once the temperature drops."

A fortnight? I wonder how money and resources was spent on this one critter to save it from natural selection? :eyebrow:

It doesn't look like a baby, which means it's already survived a winter or two without their help, right?

I've seen squirrels with major hair loss before. They probably want to capture it to definitively diagnose whether it's a mutation, poisoned; or, diseased without alarming the public.

The latter two could be recent.

Stop press! They've caught it.

Quote:

Dunstable bald squirrel 'safe and alive' after capture

A hairless squirrel which had evaded attempts to catch it after fears it would not survive the cold weather has been caught, a rescue centre has said.

The unusual creature had been spotted in a park in Dunstable, Bedfordshire.

Bedfordshire Wildlife Rescue, which had been searching for it in Grove Gardens, said "the animal is now safe" in a post on its Facebook page.

A centre volunteer confirmed the animal was alive, but would not reveal its whereabouts.

It had teamed up with the RSPCA after receiving several calls from the public and concerns the squirrel could freeze to death.

Temperatures at nearby Luton Airport fell to 0C on Saturday.

A centre spokesman confirmed to the BBC the squirrel was "safe and alive" but could not reveal any further information about what would happen to it now.

'Genetic defect'

The RSPCA said under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 it was generally illegal to release grey squirrels back to the wild once treated by a vet.

Dr Helen McRobie, a lecturer in biomedical science at the Anglia Ruskin University, said she had never heard of a bald squirrel before but it would "need to be kept in the warm once the temperature drops".

"This is very rare. I have been studying squirrels for years, but I have never come across one without any hair," she said.

"If the skin was patchy I would say that it was more likely to have been caused by a disease like mange, but the squirrel is completely bald, suggesting it is probably a genetic defect."

FWIW There's a short video of the creature at this link: BBC

One of the less endearing habits of squirrels, is their persistent looting of the bird feeders in the back garden.

Dad seems to spend a good chunk of his time shouting to scare them off.

It doesn't work, but the occupants of the nearby churchyard have been known to complain about the noise.

Send someone over to Limey's for a couple of knitted sweaters.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carruthers (Post 946193)

Quote:

... A centre spokesman confirmed to the BBC the squirrel was "safe and alive" but could not reveal any further information about what would happen to it now. ...

Meh, the squirrel probably just got exposed to some radioactive waste from a containment breach during transport through the area.

Nothing to be concerned about unless the neighborhood children start losing hair.

I think Bruce mighta been right about those blood-thirsty wabbits:

Attachment 54264

They picked it up from NYC rats. :eek3:

Forced perspective re: the photo.

A 41 lb rat would be as big as a fair-sized beaver, much larger than this bad boy.

That's an awesome rat, don't get me wrong...

Sundae, what do your boys weigh (I sad 'boys', not the girls, I'm talking about rats, here;))? A pound, pound and a half?