Those furry little guys on campus who sometimes appear at your windows and in your trash cans are fox squirrels, the largest species of tree squirrel in North America. Tree squirrels naturally nest in tree cavities. Other kinds of squirrels live in burrows in the ground or among rocks. Fox squirrels have a diet that consists of nuts, insects, fruit, and your leftovers.
Biology Professor Lauryn Benedict says, “Colorado actually has a number of squirrel species, both tree squirrels that have the big fluffy tails and then ground squirrels that are they look a little more like small prairie dogs. And prairie dogs themselves are actually squirrels.”
These critters on campus have become a beloved part of campus culture.
“I think that squirrels benefit from living with humans for sure, in that they eat all of our food scraps and they get warmth from the buildings and the things that we’ve built in the area. And I think they give us some joy in return,” said Benedict.
One of the ways in which students in particular, show their love is through social media. Instagram pages have popped up dedicating themselves to the various squirrels on campus. There is even a page dedicated to a squirrel that lives on central campus with a white tail, affectionately called Tip by some students. Benedict says that this color abnormality is probably due to some mutation in the squirrels melanin gene.
“But what’s really cool is that you can identify that one individual and I guess people know it or people love it because they know it’s the same squirrel,” said Benedict.
Holly Ackermann runs an Instagram page dedicated to the “sexiest” squirrels on campus, named @sexy_squirrels_of_unco. She says that the Instagram pages first started as a way for her and her friends to share photos of the squirrels on campus with one another. Then she started taking submissions from other students and the page has grown to more than 400 followers.
She hopes that after graduation that she will be able to pass on the Instagram page to a fellow lover of the little guy.
