Humans are a terraforming force. We shape the land to our needs. Trees are chopped down, buildings erected. As time and technology progressed, food grew with civilization. Food became plentiful and tasty. And with abundance comes waste, Lots of food waste.
And the amount of waste affects all ecosystems. On the campus, it all goes down to squirrels. Squirrels are a natural part of the bay area. Now, some of the squirrels are really fat. And it is because they eat the food that people throw away.
Squirrels have been seen digging around in the trash, scrounging and eating whatever they can find. Some have eaten things like cupcakes and other breads.
One student even tosses fries to the critters (field research shows that the squirrels do not eat everything: for example, they didn’t really touch gummy worms thrown at them.)
The point is, this is not the squirrel’s natural diet. Squirrels do not only eat acorns, they grab more than that. Squirrels are omnivores, so they will eat bugs, eggs, mushrooms, fruit and the like.
Human made food is not in line with their diets. People like their food sweetened, so it will have too much sugar, and too many fats for the rodents. It is unhealthy for them, and they won’t stop eating because it is easy access food that has relatively little competition.
People should be more cautious about wasting food. Not only is it cost inefficient, but it affects more than just people. A population of fat squirrels is ripe pickings for their predators, like cats or birds of prey.
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