Can Squirrels Do the Breaststroke?

CAN SQUIRRELS DO THE BREASTSTROKE?

Wednesday, October 03, 2007 (Napanee Beaver)

Friday, October 05, 2007 (Picton Gazette)

As our helicopter banked sharply to the right, I captured a sweeping view of the International Plowing Match site at Crosby, just east of the village of Newboro. Although located at the far side of the tented city, I was still able to photograph the tent I had just come out of which hosted a wealth of Natural Connections displays. It was conveniently located beside a Demonstration Woodlot, and I was there to lead a series of interpretive hikes as part of the ongoing program presented from this tent.

The school kids I had with me seldom missed a thing. Several times, a banded tussock moth larva captured their attention, while my eyes were higher up and looking elsewhere. They found pine cones and nuts and strange plants, and even drew my attention to a couple of large carpenter ants battling it out in a decaying tree stump. It was all about learning, and education doesn’t stop when one becomes an interpreter.

It was during a kayak paddle, ironically, not far from there last month that we came upon something I had never before seen. We were nearing the Davis Lock, having just struggled through a difficult section of Sand Lake. The water this windy day in the narrows as we approached the lock was at last becoming calm, and in the distance we spotted it. Thoughts of a beaver, then a muskrat went through our heads briefly, as the animal swam across the 150 metre stretch of water towards the far shore. As our kayaks drew up beside it, the animal turned out to be neither. It was a black squirrel. Actually, a black phase grey squirrel, if you want to get technical about the identity. And it was on a mission. The feet paddling through the water were but a blur, its tiny forehead and nose the only things visible above the surface, except for a few hairs on its trailing tail, setting up a current that made the animal appear larger than what it really was.

In my lifetime, I have seen many mammals swim. I have even seen a small meadow vole doing the dog paddle as it crossed a small body of water, and many of us know that juvenile red-winged blackbirds can swim before they can fly, certainly a life saving tactic should one fall out of its nest of reeds and cattails. When not otherwise occupied digging up our lawns for grubs, star-nosed moles also swim for they spend a lot of time in the water searching for aquatic insects. I can’t say I have ever seen a squirrel swim, but that it could, seems reasonable since most animals are born with this survival instinct.

It was after mentioning this incident in a local bird report summary on the Internet that I received a humorous e-mail from a Carrying Place area resident, south of Trenton. She related the story of some friends who live north of Belleville. They resorted to live trapping red squirrels that were being destructive on their property. Since they lived on a lake, the husband took one of the captured squirrels over to the far shore by boat. About two hours later, his wife commented that a squirrel appeared to be swimming towards them as they stood beside the cottage. Shortly, as they both watched, sure enough the red squirrel made it to where the couple was standing, indignantly pulled itself up on shore, shook itself off, and resumed its position at the bird feeder!

While swimming may prove to be a way in which squirrels can expand their breeding range and colonize new areas, one Internet source says that swimming is very strenuous for them and it’s not done unless absolutely necessary. If you go to the popular YouTube Internet site, you will find several videos which observers have filmed of squirrels swimming across narrow stretches of water or, as in one case, across a swimming pool. One person writing in says, while kayaking one day on Lake Superior, he observed a red squirrel swimming a distance of 1.5 kilometres, until it arrived safely on an island, which was located approximately two km from the mainland of Wisconsin. It was believed to be the longest swim of a red squirrel ever documented.

So, there you go. Squirrels do indeed swim, and there are many documented cases of them doing so. However, achievable distance still seems to be a factor in the species colonizing distant islands as demonstrated by their apparent absence from Main Duck Island, some 19 kilometres from the southeast shore of Prince Edward County, in Lake Ontario. It is interesting to note though, that a pair of beavers did complete the swim and constructed a lodge in the inner harbour of the island, cutting down more than a few trees in the immediate vicinity. We know that beavers are strong swimmers, but we have to wonder what would possess any beaver to set its sights on an island 19 km from shore, and then swim nonstop towards it, through an unforgiving stretch of water popularly referred to as both the Graveyard of Lake Ontario, and the Maysburgh Vortex.

Meanwhile, back in Sand Lake, the question remains why this particular squirrel was heading to the far shore. Had it been unceremoniously released on the opposite shore by an irate home owner, and was returning, or had it simply decided to invest in new real estate? We can suppose, that even to a grey squirrel, the grass may look greener on the other side of the lake.