These reindeer are kept on about 1000 acres of land in the mountains just south of Inverness. When they hear the ranger call they come running for their food (although they could survive by themselves if they had to). They're tame enough to be hand fed but tourists, and show a suprising amount of personality.
These mountains are one of the few places where the red squirrel can be found, one put in a brief appearance when we were at a cafe. they're slowly being driven out by the grey squirrel (from America). Grey squirrels eat the hazelnets and acorns at an earlier stage of ripeness than the red squirrels, who are a bit more picky with their nuts, and often go hungry as a result.
These mountains are one of the few places where the red squirrel can be found, one put in a brief appearance when we were at a cafe. they're slowly being driven out by the grey squirrel (from America). Grey squirrels eat the hazelnets and acorns at an earlier stage of ripeness than the red squirrels, who are a bit more picky with their nuts, and often go hungry as a result.
4 comments:
I've never seen a red squirrel. In California we had gray ones with white bellies; and here in British Columbia they seem to be black.
-- Jeff
I think the Red Squirrels are only native to the UK - but with my inexpert knowlege, I could be entirely wrong, though...
Lucky you, seeing a red! Sadly, I've never seen a red squirrel (or a reindeer, come to that ;-)) in the wild but the introduced grey is now ubiquitous, in England at least, even though it was introduced less than a century ago. The exact reasons why it has usurped the native red are still much debated. The red is also native to much of Europe; in fact, in the late 19th century the red previously went into decline for reasons not clear and was apparently re-introduced from European sources. It still survives in England in a few isolated locations, like Brownsea Island off the south coast.
David.
He was a pretty little fellow, sort of a surprisingly even "auburn" all over. Loveley to see, really.
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