The two squirrels were having a fun time on that tree.
Ever seen a squirrel fly through the air? I will show you in the last photo.
They are Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), and after South Africa was colonized by Great Britain one of the English governors, Cecil John Rhodes, imported the squirrels into the Western Cape Province in the 1900s. Since then, they have spread all over the country, but they are mainly found in the Cape.
The Cape is their Headquarters methinks, as we did not see them further up north in the country. I can tell you that we have much fun with these amazing gymnasts. I took the photos of the squirrels on a tree in this post on one of the farms that we visit.
Come and see.
Round and round they went on the trunk at high speed.
This one below pulled a quick stop to have a look at me.
But then they ignored me, and just carried on running around the trunk.
One of them reversed in the blink of an eye and you will see below where it went.
There is was, searching for a bite to eat, as squirrels are always hungry.
Look! An upside down dive to the next tree.
Many people see the squirrels as pests, and it also breaks our hearts when we see what they do to the Pincushion flowers. They break the flowers off, take them down, and then shred the flowers. I still do not know what it is that they eat of the flowers, but the ground is covered below the Pincushion bush with shredded flowers. Some poison the squirrels because they bite the bark off young trees and then the trees die. Nothing edible in nature is safe from the squirrels. Another heartache to see is the roadkill of the squirrels. Hardly a week goes by that we don't see a dead squirrel on a road. We used to feed them here in our garden, but we had to stop feeding them as some sunbirds arrived to build a nest in the garden. Squirrels are known to steal eggs and thankfully not in this case, as we kept an eye on the nest.
Such is a squirrel's 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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