Kimler Adventure Pages (http://randsco.com)

Home Team Scores Another Point

Hutton House - Reporters learned today, that a third squirrel has been trapped at the 5-acre Randsco campus.

"We're hoping that this means that the squirrel wars are over," said a Randsco company spokesperson, at the impromptu press conference.

The Randsco Rag headquarters have been battling against a family of squirrels, which had invaded the building, using it as their home. The squirrels, besides being early morning risers, also did quite a bit of damage to the exterior of the building, gnawing boards and shingles. The battle to extricate the pests has been ongoing, for nearly a month.

The third (and hopefully the last) squirrel, was caught just this morning.

Responding to a wanted poster put up in a nearby park, Randsco executives phoned the B.C. Ministry, at the telephone number provided on the poster.

Eastern Grey Squirrel: Here's a picture of the perpetrator, an Eastern Grey Squirrel. Dumb name, since they can be grey, brown or black. They're cute, but destructive._{Randsco Newswire}

Apparently, the Randsco squirrel infestation was perpetrated by a non-native species of squirrel - the Eastern Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).

It is believed that the Eastern Grey Squirrel was introduced to Vancouver Island in 1966, in the Metchosin area (on the south-western tip of the island). They've since greatly expanded their range and the Randsco property appears to lie at the northernmost edge of their current range. (Hence the call to arms).

The Eastern Grey Squirrel prefers nesting in attics and is known to cause quite a bit of economic damage, both to nut crops and to structures. It is believed that they push out the indigenous Red Squirrel and take over nests of a variety of native birds.

Biologists at the Vancouver Island Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection are very interested in the Randsco infestation and are sending a team of experts, later today, to investigate the captured squirrel.

"This is very typical behavior for an Eastern Grey Squirrel," said Karen, a Ministry biologist, "We're very interested in the Randsco squirrel and would like to take some morphological measurements. If it is, indeed a juvenile, as you suspect, it provides good evidence that they're having two litters a year, which is something we've expected, but have yet to prove."

Randsco employees were happy to have captured what is believed to be the last of the uninvited guests. Ministry officials seems happy to collect more scientific data on this invasive species. About the only unhappy party, is the trapped Eastern Grey Squirrel!

"They sure are cute little buggers," said one unnamed employee.

Cute? Yes. Pests? Indeed!

"Off with their tiny heads!" exclaimed one Randsco executive.