A string of recent blackouts in the downtown area of Sudbury can be traced to black squirrels.

Greater Sudbury Hydro communications director Wendy Watson said most of the outages have lasted only a few moments, but are enough to shut off appliances, computers and clocks.

"Black squirrels are larger than the regular red squirrels or grey squirrels that are in the area," Watson said, "and because they're larger, the likelihood that they will have contact with two points on a line and get electrocuted is increased."

When this happens, the hydro system will short out and then reset itself, which causes the outage.

"We know it's a squirrel when we find the carcass below the fault site," she said.

"In the past month we've found over 15 electrocuted squirrels, though we've also found crows, raccoons, an other wildlife."

Watson also believes that the tree branches are touching lines intermittently, and acting as a corridor for wildlife.

To stem the frequency of outages, Sudbury Hydro has advanced its tree-trimming schedule, Watson said.

As for suggestions on how to deal with the brief blackouts, Watson suggests people buy an uninterruptiable power supply (UPS) for computers or other sensitive electronic equipment.

"They are relatively inexpensive and keep that equipment running seamlessly during a short power interruption," she said.

And as for the wildlife?

"Please," Watson said, "stop feeding the squirrels."