Fable of the Red Squirrel and the Grey Squirrel

Once upon a time there were only red squirrels (sciurus vulgaris) in this land. Then grey squirrels (sciurus carolinensis) invaded their territory and they were aggressive and competed for their food and pilfered their food caches. And the citizens of this country said the grey squirrels were bad and tried to chase them away.

Today, but not for the first time, I watched these two squirrels, grey and red in color, cavorting in the trees outside my kitchen window. They chased each other up and down the tree trunks, it looked like they were playing. Perhaps they were foraging for food. Ah, I thought, peaceful co-existence in nature. We could follow their example.

As it turns out, they were both red squirrels (sciurus vulgaris). The coat of the red squirrel varies in color with time of year and location. There are several different coat color morphs ranging from black to red. The most obvious difference is that the red squirrels have ear tufts, but not the grey squirrels.

And what is the moral of the story?


In the extras I have a shot of the dark-coated red squirrel which shows his ear tufts. And another shot of their chase. They were very amusing and never still for a second.