National Squirrels appreciation Day - January 21st

 Squirrels appreciation Day - January 21st

Squirrels (the nature's gardener) appreciation Day is celebrated in the USA every year on 21st January since 2001.  Wildlife rehabilitation specialist, Christy Hargrove, founded National Squirrel Appreciation Day in Asheville, North Carolina. 

Up until the mid-19th century, squirrels weren’t present in American cities.  The first documented introduction of squirrels on the urban parks occurred in Philadelphia’s Franklin Square in 1847. Boston and New Haven followed suit later in 1850.  But they faced some setbacks as often they are considered as damage causers and earned the name of pest, and they are labeled rodents. In reality,  they are nature's Gardeners.  Squirrels have the habit of burying the excess nuts they have collected under the ground.  Most often either they forget or they would have collected more than what they could consume.  These buried nuts will grow into trees, thus helping in refurbishing the environment.

According to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), there are over 200 species of squirrels, which are categorized into three types: tree squirrels, ground squirrels, and flying squirrels. These three categories are further broken down into many other squirrel types. The smallest species of squirrel is the African Pygmy and the largest squirrel is the black giant squirrel.

When talking about the species, squirrels in South India have dark stripes on their back.  And there is an interesting story in our epic, Ramayana, about how they earned their stripes.

Lord Rama needed to build a bridge across the Indian Ocean to Lanka to rescue his wife Sita. All creatures wanted to help in this huge task. Lord Hanuman and all the others in Rama's vanara (monkey) army carried the largest boulders and rocks. All the smaller creatures helped too, even squirrels. 

One squirrel was carrying pebbles when a monkey asked what he was doing there, the squirrel said he was carrying pebbles to build Lord Rama's bridge. The monkey laughed at the squirrel as if to say, "What can you do, you tiny squirrel?" But it was the pebbles that filled in the gaps between the boulders that made the bridge strong. Lord Rama lifted up the little squirrel, thanked him for all his hard work, and blessed him by stroking his back. Thus they earned their 3 stripes.

Small is big.

The below squirrel stamp was issued by Japan post