The Squirrel, generally, any of and 268 species of rodents whose common name is derived from the Greek word skiouros, meaning “shade tail,” which describes one of the most conspicuous and recognizable features of these small mammals. These distinctive animals occupy a range of ecological niches worldwide virtually anywhere there is vegetation. A few fun facts of this “rodent”, a word derived from the latin word “rodere” to gnaw, is that their teeth never stop growing. 25% of their buried food is usually stolen by competitor squirrels and/or birds. To combat this, they are extremely intelligent in deceptively digging a hole and vigorously covers it up again, but without depositing the nut. It seems this is done to throw off potential food thieves. There is even a National Squirrel Appreciation Day on January 21 for this variety of roles mammal for the variety of roles the acrobatic creates play from bandit to gardener to trickster. This energetic little critter has even (accidentally) contributed countless trees to our nations forests by not retrieving all of their buried nuts!