Squirrel Stalker Wonders if It’s a Darwin Moment

It is a tranquil morning in Live Oak Memorial Park, as it often is in this immense Monrovia cemetery. But wildlife biologist Julie King is not in search of peace and quiet as she tiptoes among the headstones.

She’s seeking squirrels.

Unfortunately, the rodents are napping in trees and mostly out of sight. “The problem with this place is that no one here feeds them,” King says wryly. She explains that, because picnickers do not visit the cemetery -- and leave crumbs behind as squirrel snacks -- her quarry tends to be reclusive.

King is a Cal State Los Angeles graduate student in biology. For her master’s thesis, she is conducting the first study in decades of where fox squirrels and gray squirrels live in the Los Angeles area. That means she spends a few days each week cruising the region in her Toyota, armed with binoculars and mug shots of both species.

It’s not always easy to distinguish the two. The fox squirrel’s fur has a browner tone and it is slightly smaller than the gray squirrel.

She shows the photos to residents willing to indulge her and asks which type of squirrel is found in the neighborhood. King also visits other places where squirrels tend to live, such as golf courses, parks and graveyards.

King is the first to admit that studying fuzzy rodents with a fondness for invading garbage cans is not exactly in the same league as tracking wolves or bear, both of which she has done in previous stints as a volunteer in Alaska.

On the other hand, King considers her work important. Outside of work done by Alan Muchlinski, a biology professor at the school, little is known about the way fox squirrels -- imports to the region from the Eastern United States -- interact with the gray squirrels that evolved in Southern California. She suspects she may be on the verge of witnessing a small Darwinian episode in which one species out-competes another.

“The main problem is, if the fox squirrel population keeps expanding, they’ll be in contact with the gray squirrels,” says King.

Many residents have told King that fox squirrels have, in fact, displaced gray squirrels in their neighborhoods in the last 10 to 15 years. There are several possible explanations. One theory is that, as neighborhoods mature and trees grow larger, they also become more desirable to the fox squirrels because they resemble the lusher Eastern U.S.

Fox squirrels are more aggressive than gray squirrels, reproduce more often and appear to be more tolerant of people. The gray squirrels prefer undeveloped land in foothills on the edges of communities.

How exactly did the fox squirrels get here? That question is proving to be one of the more difficult aspects of King’s work.

The best evidence she has is a 1947 article from a local farmers’ magazine stating that the fox squirrels were brought to the area in 1904 by soldiers living at the Veterans Hospital in West Los Angeles.

The article explains that Civil War veterans from the South believed the campus was missing something: the fox squirrels they used to see and eat back home. The soldiers apparently asked friends and relatives to ship some of the rodents to California. Later, a few of the squirrels escaped from the VA facility and began slowly spreading across the city.

Ex-soldiers with a hankering for squirrels isn’t a farfetched premise, says Rayna Green, who heads the Department of Cultural History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

In the South, particularly, squirrels were valued game animals because they were so prevalent and so easy to shoot or trap. Preparing a broiled squirrel dinner was simple, requiring only a pair of the critters, salt and pepper and butter for basting. Diced squirrel was a vital ingredient in a regional delicacy called Brunswick stew.

Squirrel dishes “became kind of legendary items in the 19th century cuisine” of the South, says Green. “They were regional items that are distinctive ... and that people talk about in the same way that regional varieties of barbecue are talked about.”

The Internet is well-stocked with sites boasting squirrel recipes, including one for a meal with the appetizing name “squirrel and SpaghettiOs.”

Finding no squirrels at the graveyard, King drives a few miles to Arcadia County Park. She spots a fox squirrel before even unbuckling her seat belt.

The park is leafy and green and, unlike the cemetery, teeming with fox squirrels cavorting among the oaks, pines and picnickers. Every 50 feet, it seems, there is a squirrel munching on acorns or burying them. But there are no gray squirrels in sight. Not surprising, says King, since the park has a more “Eastern” feel to it.

King can canvass only so many square miles, so she is asking for help. Volunteers may visit her Web site and answer a few simple questions about which type of squirrel lives in their neighborhoods. The site is

https:// instructional1.calstatela.edu/amuchli/squirrelform.htm.