If there was a squirrel Olympics in Beijing next year, I am sure the Museum Gardens could send a winning team. Every day I can sit at my desk and watch at least one of these supreme athletes running up and down the rooftops outside our office in the Yorkshire Museum. Why are they doing it? There are no stores of acorns hidden away beneath the slate roof tiles or even bars of nutty chocolate in the guttering, but they always seem intent on completing some kind of vital, urgent task.
No chance of childhood squirrel obesity with the level of exercise they maintain – although maybe they are pushing the boundaries of fat intake on the footpaths of the gardens. There they boldly approach people walking through the gardens for any scrap of food they can spare. Despite the fact many refer to them as ‘tree rats’, the squirrels get away with this behaviour because they are so cute, rubbing their little hands together pleadingly and waggling their bushy tails, before scampering off for a good scoff.
Some people even get their camera out to capture the moment on film. It’s as if they think they have had a David Attenborough experience and want to keep a memento of the day they saw such a rare species. The irony is, of course, that the grey squirrel is a very common creature in this country, having largely elbowed out its rarer cousin, the native red squirrel. I remember getting as excited as our garden visitors when I saw one in the Lake District, but scared it off with the noise of opening my camera case.
The curators here have just finished a new exhibition called Aliens, about non-native animals that have made their home in the UK, and it gives the low-down on grey squirrels. But to see the real thing, you don’t have to go far outside to enjoy the sight of non-stop squirrel activity in the Museum Gardens.
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