The squirrel just came past again and we peered at each other for a bit. He is much more temperate than the ones I once met in St James's Park, who would have your wallet off you, given half a chance.
Which is a shame because Red Squirrel is one seriously megasmart-looking mammal. And quite approachable too, or at least the ones I saw in Speyside back in the early 80s were.
I just did some research. You do indeed have the invading American grey squirrel, which is called the Eastern grey squirrel here (we also have a western one that's more of a blue-grey, with no reddish tinge, which is confined to the west coast). We also have a native red squirrel, which doesn't live around humans as well as the grey squirrel does, so as humans move into red squirrel territory, they move out and the greys move in.
I don't know. Squirrel-sexing is not one of my specialist subjects. But whenever people default to 'he' (or occasionally 'she') when referring to a bird or animal, I feel inclined to haul them up on their choice of pronoun. Unless, of course, it's a sexually dimorphic species with males and females being readily separable. Call it a little crusade of mine.
I'm more bothered by 'he' or 'she' than I am by 'it'. Even if you know that a particular individual is male or female, using gender pronouns implies a level of anthropomorphism. So I default to 'it' as something outside of the realm of human experience. I only use he/she for pets. I also regularly use 'it' when referring to children. And if anything needs to be put outside the realm of human experience, it's probably children...
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momijizukamori
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Date: 2005-10-07 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-07 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-07 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-08 10:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-09 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-09 02:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-09 05:28 pm (UTC)I want to see a Pine Marten.
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Date: 2005-10-09 06:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-10 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-10-09 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-08 05:51 am (UTC)Answers including the word 'nuts' don't count:)
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Date: 2005-10-08 10:44 am (UTC)On sexing squirrels
Date: 2005-10-08 03:01 pm (UTC)Re: On sexing squirrels
Date: 2005-10-09 10:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-08 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-09 09:57 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-10-10 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-09 09:59 am (UTC)That's exactly it :-)