In the fading light of a winter's afternoon this little guy was feeding atop his midden, ignoring me as I snowshoed by.
John Muir understood the Eastern red squirrel to be closely allied with his beloved Douglas squirrel, who he said, "Nature has made a master forester...committing most of her conifer crops to his paws...probably over 50% of all the cones ripened on the Sierra are cut off and handled by the Douglas alone...he is the squirrel of squirrels...undiseased as a sunbeam...getting into the most impossible situations without a sense of danger...he is without exception the wildest animal I ever saw. "
"I cannot begin to tell how much he has cheered my lonely wanderings during all the years I have been pursuing my studies in these glorious wilds; or how much unmistakable humanity I have found in him."
(Quotes from "The Wilderness World of John Muir,"ed., Edwin Way Teale, Mariner Books, 2001.)
John Muir understood the Eastern red squirrel to be closely allied with his beloved Douglas squirrel, who he said, "Nature has made a master forester...committing most of her conifer crops to his paws...probably over 50% of all the cones ripened on the Sierra are cut off and handled by the Douglas alone...he is the squirrel of squirrels...undiseased as a sunbeam...getting into the most impossible situations without a sense of danger...he is without exception the wildest animal I ever saw. "
(Quotes from "The Wilderness World of John Muir,"ed., Edwin Way Teale, Mariner Books, 2001.)
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