“Squirrels worldwide”: giving strange squirrel news a bit of an academic touch !
Reading the Daily Mail article (see below) about Petey – the purple squirrel, I’ve decided to publicly announce my stand on this very controversial issue.
Pete the purple squirrel has become a legend among staff and pupils at the school he visits in Hampshire
Being myself a squirrel, I shall finally elucidate this issue for the larger public. No, there is no awkward thing here, so the media would better cease speculations. Here is the very simple explanation. There is probably no need to remind you in great detail why squirrels are some of the most intelligent creatures on earth. They just are. Like any intellectually gifted being, they are much into expanding and exploiting their knowledge. What Pete did was nothing out of the ordinary for a squirrel. Because his natural habitat includes a nearby school, in a sunny Sunday morning he broke into the school’s computer lab. There he started writing an essay about the spiritual dimension Christmas has for squirrels (as you can see, the article is dated Dec.22 so it was just a few days before celebrations). When Pete finished writing this essay he naturally wanted to get it printed. Unfortunately, just as he was printing the essay the printer stopped functioning. Petey – like any perseverant, agile creature – got at the heart of the matter, finally managing to fix the printer. However, during his struggle to cope with the damaged printer, he spilled one ink cartridge on his marvelous fur. As you all know, squirrel fur has the particular feature of permanently absorbing any substance it gets into contact with. Then that substance gets into the blood stream, generating a permanent, non-reversible effect on the squirrel. So obviously that happened to Petey too. Simple as that. I’ve got no clue why people complicate so much with finding surreal explanation for the obvious (?)
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Pete the purple squirrel leaves animal lovers baffled
By Daily Mail Reporter, 22nd December 2008
We’ve all seen lots of grey squirrels and maybe the occasional red, but this chap is definitely going through a purple patch. He was spotted at Meoncross School in Stubbington, Hampshire, where pupils, staff and parents have all tried to solve the mystery of his unusual hue.
One clue is that he frequently pops into a building where old printers are stored. TV wildlife expert Chris Packham said: ‘It is possible he has been chewing on a purple ink cartridge and then groomed that colouring into his fur. ‘Squirrels will chew anything even if it’s obviously inedible. He is unlikely to have fallen into paint because that would probably have killed him.’I imagine he’ll return to his normal grey by spring when he moults.’ But people who have seen the squirrel say they do not believe this explains its even colouring.
Dr Mike Edwards, an English teacher at the school, first spotted the squirrel outside his classroom window. He said: ‘I was sitting in my classroom and looked out the window and saw it sitting on the fence. I had to do a double take. Since then it’s been a bit of a regular at the school – everyone’s seen it. We thought it might have been paint or something but then when you look at it up close, it’s an all-over coat, not in patches like you’d expect if it had been near some paint. Its fur actually looks purple all the way through. It’s an absolute mystery.’ School pupils even contacted animal expert Bill Oddie for his views in their bid to solve the riddle.
Lorraine Orridge, the school’s registrar, believes Pete’s unusual-coloured fur looks like a school uniform. She said: ‘The squirrel has become a bit of a legend among staff and pupils at the school. He makes an appearance most days and we always look forward to seeing him. When we first spotted him he was more blue than purple, which we thought was great because it matches our school colours – it was like he was wearing his own uniform. He is a very shy character and only really comes out when pupils are in lessons. If anyone approaches he runs away.We don’t think he is a mutant squirrel but he may have had a mishap around the school. The old building where we have seen him nipping in and out is a bit of a graveyard for computer printers. He may have found some printer toners in there. We haven’t seen any purple baby squirrels yet.’
News source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1099282/Pete-purple-squirrel-leaves-animal-lovers-baffled.html. Photos by: Zachary Culpin/Solentnews.biz, Solent News & Photo Agency
