Article content continued



But are the squirrels extra-fat this year?

No. Well, maybe. But not by much. Various animal experts and pest control operators have told Canadian media that they think squirrels in Toronto and Ottawa are particularly portly this year because the mild winter, caused by a very strong El Niño that has formed in the Pacific Ocean, is giving them extra time to pack on pounds. “What a year for fat squirrels! Have you seen some of these guys? They’re colossal,” Dan Brunton, a naturalist and environmental consultant in Ottawa told Postmedia News. “Really, I think squirrels are obese this year.” But all of these accounts are based on anecdotal evidence. There have been no studies comparing squirrel girth. Not one. Meanwhile, the Toronto Wildlife Centre has received “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds” of calls about squirrels this fall and winter, and “there’s nothing different going on,” said Nathalie Karvonen, the organization’s executive director. It’s “business as usual in the plump squirrel world,” she said. In other words, they are fat, yes, but they are fat every winter. It doesn’t matter that this is the first year you are noticing their portly figures.

If a few squirrels are extra-fat, should we be worried?

Don’t break out the squirrel treadmills just yet. They are going to burn all that extra fat off once the temperatures drop. “If it’s really, really cold, squirrels won’t do much. They just snooze out for three or four days. Well, they’re using up energy to do that. So it’s really to their advantage to bulk up,” Brunton said. “They look like caricatures and they waddle around. By spring, they ain’t waddling no more.” The squirrels know what they are doing.