Why are there more urban squirrels than forest ones???

Discussion in 'Earth Science' started by Syzygys, Sep 27, 2011.

  1. MacGyver1968 Fixin' Shit that Ain't Broke Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    7,028
    There are 1.6 imperial buttloads to one metric buttload. For larger quantities, you can use kilobuttloads or megabuttloads.
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. leopold Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    17,455
    oh man, you haven't lived until you ate homemade biscuits and squirrel gravy.
    yummy! my mouth is WATERIN'
     
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

    Messages:
    10,890
    1 Imperial (American) Buttload = 1 Metric Buttload multiplied by a factor of Pie.
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    Like many wild species, squirrels just happen to thrive on food that grows in abundance around human settlements. Our yards, parks and even freeway medians are full of cultivated nut trees and other ornamental plants that bear a huge bounty of fruits and seeds.

    Or food we throw away. A high percentage of the "camp follower" species are scavengers, such as bears, coyotes, hyenas, jays, crows and macaws. Dogs, goats and pigs self-domesticated after discovering that humans were quite happy to let them clean up our garbage.
    Squirrels are not obligate herbivores like rabbits and cattle, and they lack the gut bacteria to digest cellulose. Still, they prefer plant tissue and generally only eat meat if it's handed to them or they're starving.
    Unfortunately for them, many of their predators also became camp followers, such as foxes and raccoons. And most of our homes have at least one domesticated wolf, or even a large cat who can chase them a little further up into the trees.
    I buy them peanuts in the shell. But it's hard to keep the jays away.
    They're intelligent enough to learn who's a threat and who's not. They let my little dogs get pretty close because they know they can outrun them. They also understand glass. They don't pay any attention to me when I look at them through the glass door, but when I open it they get wary.
    It was a mainstay in the old days, and is still popular in rural areas.
    Rats and squirrels are both rodents but they each have their own class. You might as well call beavers, capybaras and porcupines "rats" too. Or groundhogs, large burrowing squirrels that are a popular delicacy in Appalachia.
    Someone introduced them to D.C. a few decades ago and they have been proliferating. It's just a different color variety of the everyday Eastern Grey [edit, I wrote "black" by mistake] Squirrel. I notice that they are a little closer to domestication. When I walk outside, the grey squirrels scatter and climb up into the trees, but the black ones just jump onto the fence and wait for me to leave. So they're the first ones back under the bird feeder.

    Of course all squirrels domesticate pretty easily in parks. If you've got popcorn or peanuts, you'll have a dozen squirrels doing cute tricks in hope of taking a reward from your hand.

    Although you might get bitten by accident, almost none of them ever get rabies and there are no known cases of squirrels transmitting it to humans. Groundhogs (or "woodchucks"), on the other hand, do carry it. More Americans have gotten it from them than from all other rodents combined.
     
    Last edited: Sep 28, 2011
  8. scheherazade Northern Horse Whisperer Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,798
    And how many squirrel pies can be baked from 1 Metric Buttload of squirresl?

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Orleander.....we have no black squirrels in these parts and the scrawny little red ones are not very tasty.....at least not just roasted on a stick. I was a poor hungry child once upon a time.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Spidergoat.....squirrels will chew on a lot of things, including meat used to bait a trap set for predators. They also go into wild rabbit burrows and eat the very new babies and raid birds nest, eating the eggs or recent hatchlings.

    MacGyver1968.....I agree that squirrels have a big-eyed cute factor that seems to blind us to their 'rodent' classification.
     
  9. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

    Messages:
    10,890
    An imperial buttload of course (duh!)

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Wait, that aint right >_>
     
  10. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    19,252
    So that would make a metric buttload a buttload and a half. (And another little bit).
     
  11. NietzscheHimself Banned Banned

    Messages:
    867
    Because people in rural areas eat squirls to keep down their population.
     
  12. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    19,252
    Okay, that accounts for the squirls. What about the squirrels, per the OP?
     
  13. NietzscheHimself Banned Banned

    Messages:
    867
    Oh those... they don't eat those...
     
  14. scheherazade Northern Horse Whisperer Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,798
    Indeed. We are seeking a numeric value from a volume measurement, and must compensate for the additional ingredients used in making this Metric Buttload of squirrels into personal size pies.

    If we are selling into Canada, we shall have to observe the metric system of measurement.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Additional value if we get organic certification and then we need a good name....perhaps Pine Nut Organics.....
     
  15. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    19,252
    Tons!
     
  16. scheherazade Northern Horse Whisperer Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,798
    For our purposes we will use the Imperial Buttload to start, as most readers will be more familiar with the Imperial system, IMO.

    We will use a cubic yard as our standard and extrapolate that one square foot of frozen, deboned squirrel weighs 25 Lbs/square foot, based on similar averages for other meats.

    27 square feet x 25 lbs. = 675 lbs of useable product.

    We will use the Canadian standard of 'quarter-pounder' or 4 ounces of squirrel meat in each of these squirrel pies.

    675 pounds @ 4 pies per pound should give us the potential of 2700 pies.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    A little pastry cut-out on top to distinguish our product, perhaps....

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiger-lily/3949248579/sizes/m/in/photostream/
     
  17. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

    Messages:
    10,890
    Well, if it takes a Mole of Squirrels to make up a metric buttload, then I guess it comes down to your Squirrel

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    ie ratio, which is a reflection of the Meat:Sauce ratio of your filling.
     
  18. Emil Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,801
    It is also Marine (Nautical) Buttload but I forgot their relationship.
     
  19. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    19,252
    Is that a yard deep over one square foot?

    2,700? F*ck, that's more than tons of pies it's a shitload!
     
  20. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

    Messages:
    10,890
    I suppose then we should start talking in buttload-moles of Squirrels?

    :ROTFLMAO:
     
  21. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

    Messages:
    10,890
    A shitload-mole of squirrel pies?
     
  22. Emil Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,801
    A buttload-moles of squirrels have 6.02214179(30)×10^23 of squirrels.
     
  23. scheherazade Northern Horse Whisperer Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,798
    Here's one good reason for making the furry little varmints into pies......a bit of a side-bar to this thread.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    http://www.yukon-news.com/news/22957/
     

Share This Page