Fort Lewis Becomes New Home for Gray Squirrels
By John Dodge, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.
Oct. 10–FORT LEWIS — It was moving day Tuesday for seven western gray squirrels released at Fort Lewis in a bid to prevent the species from going extinct in Western Washington.
About 50 of the native squirrels live amidst the prairies, oak woodlands and conifer trees at the 86,000-acre military base, but it’s the only known population outside of the Methow Valley in Okanogan County and Klickitat County, said state Fish and Wildlife biologist Matt Vander Haegen.
That’s not enough of the short-lived critters to ensure their survival from inbreeding, outbreak of disease or some other catastrophe.
So biologists from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and Fort Lewis have embarked on a project to move a few squirrels each year from one of the healthier Eastern Washington locations to bolster the Fort Lewis population.
“This project has been in the works for a long time
it’s exciting,” said state Fish and Wildlife biologist Gene Orth.
Tuesday’s squirrel project is part of a larger effort to protect and restore the prairies and oak woodlands of South Sound, and the birds, butterflies, frogs, squirrels, gophers and other species that depend on that habitat.
The silver gray, bushy-tailed squirrels were trapped in small cages in the Methow Valley on Monday, weighed, inoculated for mange, then transported in the back of a canopy-covered pickup truck filled with dirt from Fort Lewis. They were fed acorn nuts from the Fort Lewis oak trees to get accustomed to their new home.
Outnumbered by biologists and other onlookers, the blanketed cages were placed on the ground in a cluster of Ponderosa pines, Douglas fir trees and Oregon white oak. Some chattered anxiously as they awaited their release.
One-by-one, the cage doors were opened, and the squirrels either streaked away by foot or scampered up the nearest tree. One juvenile fell from a tree and landed with a thud on the ground, then ran away, apparently unharmed.
“They’re very wary and skittish,” Orth said. “With any luck, they’ll forget all about their homeland.”
The squirrels were fitted with radio collars and ear-tags to track their movements, survival rates and breeding activity.
Researchers also are studying interactions between the native western gray squirrel and the eastern gray squirrel, which was introduced to the state in 1925 and now vastly outnumbers the native squirrel.
“The eastern grays out breed and out eat the western grays,” state Fish and Wildlife biologist Mary Linders said.
The western gray has succumbed to habitat loss, disease and suspected competition from the eastern gray. It was listed as a state threatened species in 1993.
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