Tree Top Acrobat

Red squirrels are cherished but greys despised. Is this fair? It’s time to get to know the high-flying world of these two kings of the canopy– and perhaps learn to love them both, says Dominic Couzens

- Dominic Couzens

Have you been to one of those parties at Christmas where bored children and slightly tipsy adults get into a circle and imitate the actions of different animals – elephants, monkeys and so on? If so, have you ever tried being a squirrel? It isn’t easy, is it? In fact, it can be downright dangerous.

Squirrels are so familiar to us that we easily forget that, in common with many wild animals, they are quite alien in body form and senses. They are hyper-adapted to living and foraging throughout the superstructure of woodland and forest, from the floor to the canopy. Even Tarzan couldn’t emulate the squirrels’ acrobatic feats up in the branches, and he’s fictional. Take the squirrels’ signature talent– the ability to run head first down trees. This is achieved by the hind feet rotating 180 degrees from a forward orientation. In other words, the feet move about the ankle to face backwards, with the claws digging into the trunk or branch. As a result, squirrels can manoeuvre as quickly down vertical trunks as up them.

Squirrel gymnastics are at their most impressive in the canopy. Who hasn’t delighted in the sight of one of these rodents leaping high from branch to branch or even tree to tree?