Rubber Rooms for Squirrels and The Villager Red-tail "Surprise"

From Jackie of the Tulsa Hawk Forum
Hi, Donna--
While I was looking for bird info, I came across a site by a man who makes squirrel houses out of recycled rubber. I don't know how well they function, and I'm not promoting this product--just thought it was a novel idea. Here is the site, plus attached photos.

http://www.squirrelhouses.com/inatree.html


And a testimonial note from a user in your neighborhood, who apparently is a squirrel rehabber:
"Sept. 8, 2007
The tire houses got all the way to the East End of Long Island very quickly. They are getting a huge thumbs up from our rehabilitated bumper crop of autumn baby squirrels. I put a tire house in a cage today so they could get used to it. Within twelve hours, all five had moved from their very nice white pine squirrel house and into the tire. So I just ordered two more. How ingenious! We are using them for soft release habitats and are very optimistic. Thanks for your hard work and excellent service.
Penny Moser,
Sag Harbor, NY"

Jackie (Bville on the Tulsa Hawk Forum)

Now isn't this fascinating! Why would a squirrel prefer a rubber house to a wooden one? After all, originally they nested in cavities in trees, so why would they prefer rubber to a wooden squirrel house?

Do they have a grand affection for squishy quarters? Do they love the smell of hot rubber come a warm afternoon? Or is it that the curves are more similar to a natural cavity than our usual squared off built wildlife houses?

Francois Portmann discovered that we'd been published, that's his photo of Valkyrie sitting on top of one of rehabber Carol Vinzant's squirrel houses, without knowing it. He said, "Weird".

Besides we are talking about squirrel houses today, anyway.

I couldn't seem to get the above page to enlarge and stay enlarged when placing it on the blog. Therefore for those who want to scrutinize closely, copy the page, paste into an area with zoom, and go to town.

D.B.