Squirrels - Who doesn't love these cute animals? They are not afraid of humans nor do they cause any harm. And we have plenty of them at our UIUC campus, specially at the Quad area. With their small bodies and proportionally big fluffy tails, they move swiftly from branches to branches or play on the ground. To me they are the most entertaining creatures on campus, cause during breaks most of the students go home and any human being can be barely seen around. But the squirrels are always here, adding more life to the green nature and entertaining with their adorable faces.
I always enjoy watching the squirrels playing. But I was wondering how did they get here and how did the population of squirrel grow so big at this campus area? According to University of Illinois Archives, there were not many of them here before 1900. On May of 1901, University President Andrew S. Draper along with Professor Geology Charles W. Rolfe took the initiative to increase their number by constructing breeding cage with several compartments on University lawn. And today we definitely feel thankful to them as their step towards securing the number of squirrels resulted into a more lively campus life of today's.
I personally love taking nature photos and animals are part of that. But I did not have much time during weekdays to walk around campus and take photos since I started grad school here. On this Christmas day the weather was really nice and I thought I would take a walk around the quiet campus and enjoy company of cute squirrels. Then I could capture some photos of them. And one of the squirrels looked so curious as I was taking photos that it looked straight at me and gave a pose for a moment. I really adore that photo and it turned to be the first photo of mine to get Explored on Flickr!
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Definitely that was quite motivating to take more photos of them :)
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