CAPE GAZETTE, Friday, April 10 - April 16, 1998 - 95
Searching l00or endangered squirrels at Assawoman
OUTDOORS
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Michael Short
none. The good news is that the
lack of squirrels doesn't mean
they are doing badly because
Delmarva fox squirrels are per-
haps the rarest animal in
Delaware. Once common, the
large silver squirrels are now an
endangered species, which is
struggling to maintain a toehold in
Delaware.
The squirrels were extinct in
Delaware until 30 of them were
released at two Delaware sites in
1984. The squirrels have success-
fully reproduced, but they remain
extremely rare in Delaware.
The two sites are Prime Hook
Wildlife Refuge and Assawoman
Wildlife Refuge. On April 6, state
environmental officials checked
20 nesting boxes at Assawoman to
see if the boxes had attracted nest-
ing Delmarva fox squirrels.
The bad news is that we found
Mlchael Short photo
Rusty Humbert of Delaware's Division of Fish and Wildlife
bands a screech owl found the night of Apri| 6, while environ.
mental officials looked for rare nesting fox squirrels.
TIDES
Date
i
4/10
India mver
Inlet
Rehoboth
Beach
Roosevelt
Inlet
4/11
i
4/12
4/13
4/14
i
4/15
i
4/16
Oak
Orchard
warm weather or bad timing (if
the squirrels already nested) could
explain the fact that none were
found. The distinctive animals are
twice the size of most squirrels
and are sometimes called "cat"
squirrels because of their size,
which can reach at least three
pounds. They have been on the
endangered species list since
1967.
Ken Reynolds of the Delaware
Division of Fish and Wildlife has
directed the effort to bring back
the squirrels. Monday's nesting
box count was the first time that
none of the squirrels have been
found.
But there were plenty of other
wildlife in abundance. The nest-
ing boxes yielded a sleepy screech
owl and several gray squirrels,
who were most annoyed to find
their homes plucked from trees
and opened.
About half of the boxes were
occupied with various critters. We
climbed up to the boxes, stuffed
towels in the entrance and then
pulled the box off the side of the
tree so it could be safely examined
on the ground.
Once on the ground,, the lid was
removed and the wildlife inside
was gently nudged out the en-
trance and into a wire enclosure.
There can be some interesting flo-
ra or fauna, including a nest of
black widows found in one box on
one previous nesting box count.
But this trip produced nothing
nearly that interesting. There were
at least three flying squirrels, in-
cluding one that scurried between
our legs in the pitch black as mid-
night approached.
There was also the owl, which
had laid three eggs. She was band-
ed, photographed and then
promptly fell asleep before being
returned to her home.
There was also the reporter who
tried hard not to fall in ditches or
blind environmental officials with
flash bulbs while they climbed
pine trees in the dark.
The owl was no bigger than the
gray squirrels and she was surpris-
ingly docile. But the two rat
snakes found in two boxes were
anything but docile once dis-
turbed.
Joining Reynolds was Harry
Schellenger and Rusty Humbert,
also of the Delaware Division of
Fish and Wildlife. Humbert is es-
Continued on page 96
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IX : |
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