The story of the mysterious squirrel that steals pebbles.
On 1st January 2005, Maria Salmon wrote to say that she has a problem with a grey squirrel who is stealing pebbles, about the size of a walnut, from her garden, and she wondered if anyone had heard of or seen this unusual behaviour, and why the squirrel was doing it? Maria would also like to know if there is a way to stop the squirrel stealing the pebbles. She says that it was quite amusing when it first started a few months ago but it had reached the point where they will have to buy more pebbles to replace all those taken away. She believes the squirrel takes pebbles on most days but she has never found out where it takes them. Her property backs onto a park and the squirrel does not always go in the same direction when it leaves the garden. Maria feeds the squirrels in her garden, but this particular one normal ignores the food and just keeps taking the pebbles.
Maria continues the story on 24th February. She thought that the squirrel might have stopped its unusual behaviour, but it reappeared and started removing pebbles from another area in the garden since the original place has few pebbles left. Maria says they have quite a few squirrels that come into the garden but she assumes it is the same animal that has a penchant for pebbles. The other squirrels are only interested in the nuts put out, but this one just, goes straight for the pebbles, picks one up and goes straight off to do whatever it does with it.
The SquirrelWeb team is just as intrigued by this story as Maria, but we can offer no explanation. So, if anyone has seen this or similar unusual behaviour, please contact us or Maria directly (maria [dot symbol] salmon38 [at symbol] tiscali [dot symbol] co [dot symbol] uk).