Squirrels of Caltech
You hear a lot about the people around campus - professors, grad students, postdocs,administrators, staff, and, of course, the notorious undergrads.However, on your average day strolling around Caltech, it isn't the people who jumpout at you so much as it is the squirrels. Because, on occasion, they literally dojump out at you from the bushes.Yes, we have a lively bunch of frisky and surprisingly unafraid squirrels at Caltech,and they deserve some mention as an integral and adorable aspect of our community.
I think people really do take the squirrels to be part of the community. For example, every day, someone leavesa plastic Tupperware container with seeds in a corner near the stairs leading to the Dabney Hall of Humanities, and the container slowly empties over the course of the dayas the squirrels take their fill. There's also a guy (a professor, I think, althoughI've never had the chance to talk with him and find out) who sits by the aeronauticsbuilding in the evenings and chatters at the squirrels playing in the lawn, offering them nutsand seeds. And heartless indeed is the undergrad who, while walking to class, fails to watch thesquirrels darting through the branches overhead.The squirrels basically live throughout all of campus, although as one might expect, they tend tocrop up near Chandler, Broad Cafe, and other food areas to maximize their returns frominteracting with people, waiting in the trees for the opportune moment:
I encountered a lot of squirrels this summer, since my walk to lab every morning led me through thewestern half of San Pasqual Walk, an area that squirrels enjoy because it's surroundedby a lot of tall trees and a lot of lab meetings with leftover food. Like these two guys I found lounging in the trees one lazy afternoon:
