...as we have never seen this habit before.
This is the little squirrel with the broken back legs we suspect that it was an electric fence that damaged the squirrel's legs last year, and I have done a post about it at the time.
The diet: For lunch, it had two oak acorns, then eight peanuts, and finally it surprised us by eating some pink hibiscus flowers for dessert in the garden next door.
None of the other squirrels eat the pink or any other colored hibiscus flowers, and squirrels are also not known to be pollinators, but I suspect that there is some sweetness on the flower stems. With regards to the Fynbos Protea Pin Cushions, rats and mice are known to disperse the seeds, so it is possible that squirrels eating certain plant species, could also be dispersing the seeds.
Squirrels have a very varied diet. We have also seen them eat the green leaves of the vygie (Mesemb) succulents (Ice Plant family), as well as berries and cocktail tomatoes (growing in people's gardens). And of course, all kinds of nuts. I have posted about this quite a few years back, where I showed how I collected the Macadamia nuts from the trees where we stayed when we moved to this town, but I had to do so very early otherwise the squirrels would have taken them all. I did, however, share with them by leaving a fair number for them too. Fair is fair.
Hey! What about me? said this little guy below. *Why don't you treat me like my sibling under the hibiscus bush? *
So, why don't you answer me? Are you guilty of favoritism?
The squirrel does not come to eat every day anymore as it used to, and we only see it maybe two or three days per week. According to a wildlife vet's advice, my wife counts the ingredients of the food that she lays out for the squirrel, in order to see if it continues to eat everything. Should it start to eat less, then we will sadly have to notify the vet to come and collect it. We know what that means, as it will be put down, so we feel great joy when it eats everything.
On instinct, the little squirrel is now also burying peanuts after it has eaten to have food stocks for winter, which is around the corner. There is some open sand under the hibiscus bushes, and the little one enjoys lying flat on the smooth sand to warm its stomach in the earlier morning when the sun arrives. It is more comfortable than the hard paving. A real cute little critter, and it is great to see how it copes with its disability.
Such is squirrel life.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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