Free Owls Aren't Wise and Bats Aren't Blind by Warner Shedd Page B

predator; according to one Alaska biologist, a pair of nesting northern spotted owls can cause the demise of as many as 440 flying squirrels in a single year.
    Hawks are also listed as a predator of both species, but if flying squirrels are indeed totally nocturnal, as some sources indicate, it seems inconsistent for those same sources to list the completely diurnal hawks as their predator. However, this inconsistency aside, hawks probably do catch an occasional flying squirrel from those that now and then forage in daylight hours.
    Far more serious predators than hawks abound, however. Weasels, martens, fishers, foxes, coyotes, raccoons, snakes, and bobcats all take their toll. That leaves one more important predator, at least where humans live— the house cat.
    I can personally testify to the efficacy of these small felines when it comes to catching flying squirrels. Until it unfortunately burned, there was a very large barn on our farm. Built in 1866, it was forty-five feet wide, seventy feet long, three stories high, and was full of hollow partitions and a multitude of nooks and crannies. An amazing assortment of wildlife inhabited that barn, including flying squirrels.
    Although we never saw a live flying squirrel in the barn, we often found evidence of their presence. Our house cats regularly prowled the area, sometimes during daylight hours and sometimes at night. Often when we entered the barn we would see the tails of squirrels that the cats had killed and eaten. The majority of them were from red squirrels, but it was by no means uncommon to find the soft, silky tails of flying squirrels—mute testimony both to the abundance of the squirrels and the predatory prowess of the cats.
    It’s perhaps appropriate to mention that two subspecies of the northern flying squirrel are considered endangered, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. One is the Carolina northern flying squirrel
(Glaucomys sabrinus coloratus),
which is found in just five locations—three in western North Carolina and two in eastern Tennessee. Its closest relative is the other endangered subspecies, the Virginia northern flying squirrel
(Glaucomys sabrinus
fuscus);
this latter is found in just a few areas of Virginia and West Virginia.
    While we hope that these two endangered subspecies survive, we can also take comfort from the fact that both the northern and southern flying squirrels are generally doing quite well throughout the major part of their respective ranges. Despite the attrition from disease and a horde of predators, the little gliders are sufficiently elusive, and have a high enough reproductive rate, to ensure their survival.

5
    A “Pig,” Perhaps, but Not a Hog: The Porcupine
    MYTHS
    Porcupine quills are barbed.
    Porcupine quills are filled with air, like a balloon.
    Porcupines can throw their quills.
    A porcupine is a hedgehog.
    Porcupines are adept at climbing trees.
    THE PORCUPINE IS A CURIOSITY, AN ODDITY, ONE OF THOSE ABERRATIONS DECIDEDLY OUT OF THE MAMMALIAN MAINSTREAM. Slow, plodding, awkward, rather dim-witted, and quite lacking in adaptability, the porcupine would seem to qualify as a poor candidate for survival in a dangerous world where so many seemingly better-equipped animals have passed into extinction. Yet despite such numerous disadvantages, this walking collection of anomalies has survived for millions of years and gives every appearance of wending its bumbling, unconcerned way into the distant future.
    The saving grace in this oddball animal’s makeup is, of course, its quilly armor. Without that wonderful evolutionary quirk, the porcupine would long since have gone the way of dinosaurs, woolly mammoths, and sundry other unfortunates. However, the porky’s defenses are so formidable that, with few exceptions, it can waddle its way through life with minimal problems from would-be predators.
    Porcupine quills are actually highly specialized hairs, totally distinct from the short underfur and very long