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Comment on Why do boomers hate squirrels so much?

partial_accumen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Squirrels are an invasive species, they’re not native to North America.

Just how many tens of millions of years do a species need to exist in a place before you consider it native to that land?

“The earliest known North American squirrel fossil dates back to the late Eocene epoch, about 34 million years ago.” source

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Shadow@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Only about 300 years, from your own link you kindly provided:

When European settlers first arrived in North America, they brought with them a number of animals that were not native to the continent. One of these animals was the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), which was introduced to England in the early 1600s as a curiosity.

The eastern gray squirrel quickly became popular in England, where it was kept as a pet and admired for its agility and intelligence. In the late 1700s, a group of eastern gray squirrels was introduced to New York City’s Central Park, where they quickly established a population.

Over the next few decades, the eastern gray squirrel spread rapidly across North America, aided by its adaptability and ability to thrive in a variety of habitats. Today, the eastern gray squirrel is one of the most common squirrels in North America, and it can be found in every state except for Alaska and Hawaii.

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- partial_accumen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  Only about 300 years, from your own link you kindly provided:
  
  I think you need to read that carefully again. Squirrels have been in North America for millions of years before Europeans arrived. The part you quoted was where Europeans took a specific species of squirrel found in North America, the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), back with them to England.
  
  The rest of that quoted piece talks about that specific species of North American squirrel’s spread around other parts of North American.
  
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  - Shadow@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah you’re right, I totally read it backwards. 🤦
    
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    partial_accumen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    No worries!
    
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technocat@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Don’t forget the obviously non-invasive european starling and european house sparrow common at feeders.

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