Where are all the acorns?
By Owen Morris in News
Thursday, Dec. 4 2008 @ 10:30AM
The title of this post is basically the question brought up this past Sunday in the Washington Post. The article notes the lack of acorns up and down the east coast and that As I was reading the article I realized that hey, I haven't seen any acorns this winter in Kansas City either. Forget Washington D.C. -- Kansas City is in the midst of a great acorn shortage as well, and It's not like there's a lack of oak trees lining many Kansas City neighborhoods.
I called Sheryl Saunders of Operation Wildlife (OWL) in Linwood, Kansas. As the center's animal care coordinator and only full-time employee, Saunders helps care for many different animals, including squirrels. As soon I said the word "acorns," she picked up the conversation.
"You know it's funny you should ask about acorns. I was just talking
about that with our volunteers," she said. "We've got a lot of oak trees
out here and we haven't seen one acorn. We used to pick them up and
feed them to our squirrels but we haven't been able to do that."
The Washington Post article implies that without acorns, squirrels face severe food shortages but Saunders is more optimistic about squirrels' chances. "It takes a lot to kill a squirrel and I say that in the most loving terms. They're omnivorous and though they mostly eat acorns and nuts, they'll eat herbs and other things ... as members of the rodent family they've got hearty systems."
Besides, OWL hasn't seen a rise in troubled squirrels. "We won't know for sure for another month or two months. Right now, most squirrels are resting and not going out but when it warms up they'll start searching for food ... I worry about the squirrels in the wild. We haven't seen many that are starving but by the time a squirrel is hungry enough you can catch it, it's usually too late."
While squirrels aren't everybody's favorite animals, nobody wants to see squirrels starving to death. Kansans seem especially friendly to squirrels. In addition to OWL's two locations in Linwood and in Overland Park at 75th Street and Nieman, Kansas State University was voted earlier this year as being one of the friendliest campuses in the country to squirrels.
While no one knows what causes the lack of acorns the best theories seem to be a heavy rainfall this spring or just nature's boom and bust ways. "They say its cylindrical but I don't know for sure," Saunders says. "You could say squirrels are having there own little acorn recession. The trees have gone on strike!"
Visit Operation Wildlife's website.
-- Owen Morris
The Washington Post article implies that without acorns, squirrels face severe food shortages but Saunders is more optimistic about squirrels' chances. "It takes a lot to kill a squirrel and I say that in the most loving terms. They're omnivorous and though they mostly eat acorns and nuts, they'll eat herbs and other things ... as members of the rodent family they've got hearty systems."
Besides, OWL hasn't seen a rise in troubled squirrels. "We won't know for sure for another month or two months. Right now, most squirrels are resting and not going out but when it warms up they'll start searching for food ... I worry about the squirrels in the wild. We haven't seen many that are starving but by the time a squirrel is hungry enough you can catch it, it's usually too late."
While squirrels aren't everybody's favorite animals, nobody wants to see squirrels starving to death. Kansans seem especially friendly to squirrels. In addition to OWL's two locations in Linwood and in Overland Park at 75th Street and Nieman, Kansas State University was voted earlier this year as being one of the friendliest campuses in the country to squirrels.
While no one knows what causes the lack of acorns the best theories seem to be a heavy rainfall this spring or just nature's boom and bust ways. "They say its cylindrical but I don't know for sure," Saunders says. "You could say squirrels are having there own little acorn recession. The trees have gone on strike!"
Visit Operation Wildlife's website.
-- Owen Morris
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