{"id":4534,"date":"2012-03-05T11:45:22","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T19:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/?p=4534"},"modified":"2012-09-27T23:12:39","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T06:12:39","slug":"squirrel-roundup-in-californias-surprise-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/squirrel-roundup-in-californias-surprise-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Squirrel Roundup in California’s Surprise Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Squirrels are cute, little furry creatures that seem to live in harmony with humans, right?\u00a0 Not always! In Santa Monica the city has tried to deal with squirrel overpopulation by introducing birth control. When I visited friends in Vancouver and joined their morning stroll, locals shared reports about an aggressive squirrel that terrorized the neighborhood and actually chased after people and pets! And in California’s farm country, squirrels are generally “pests” not quite as bad as the rodent overpopulation in Australia, but still worrisome.<\/p>\n

One of the most unique events in California that was created to help\u00a0 local farmers is held each year in\u00a0 Northern California’s Shasta Cascade area.\u00a0Surprise Valley Chamber of Commerce (in Cedarville) hosts its 21st Annual Squirrel Roundup<\/strong><\/a> on March 22, 2012. The annual event is held each spring in an effort to help thin out this rodent population. Reservations are required and entry is limited to 100 people, though a lot more apply! If you don’t qualify this year, put it on your calendar for 2013.\u00a0 Questions, call: (530) 279- 2001 or surprisevalleychamber.com<\/p>\n

Rodents make up 40% of mammal species and are known for their sharp teeth that can gnaw through wood and other materials. In California, tourists are advised not to feed squirrels or try to pet them –most California rest stops post warnings that the squirrels carry diseases and contact should be avoided.\u00a0 As seen in the photo, people tend to ignore such postings.<\/p>\n

In California, you can only\u00a0 hunt squirrel if you have a hunting license issued through\u00a0 California Department of Fish & Game (dfg.ca.gov) and a place to hunt. During the Squirrel Roundup the participants contact local farmers to get permission to hunt on their land.\u00a0 There is no age\u00a0 limit for hunting, so you’ll see women & men bring their kids who have\u00a0 hunting licenses to participate in the event.<\/p>\n

Squirrel hunting is legal and falls under the category of\u00a0 ‘resident small game’ that includes:\u00a0 tree squirrels (genus Sciurus and Tamiasciurus),\u00a0 wild turkeys, jackrabbits and varying hares, cottontail rabbits, brush rabbits, pygmy rabbits, Chinese spotted doves, ringed turtledoves, California quail, gambel or desert quail, mountain quail, blue grouse, sage hens and certain types of\u00a0 partridges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Squirrels are cute, little furry creatures that seem to live in harmony with humans, right?\u00a0 Not always! In Santa Monica the city has tried to deal with squirrel overpopulation by introducing birth control. When I visited friends in Vancouver and joined their morning stroll, locals shared reports about an aggressive squirrel that terrorized the neighborhood […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}