Close Encounters!

Last week we had an outing to Skansen. The second time in two weeks.

We had a full afternoon of looking at different animals - cats, pigs, goats, elk, bears, seal and otters before we were getting peckish and thoughts were turning to food. So, off we headed to one of the restaurants that was a 10 minute hike.

But Alice was lagging behind. When I asked her what she was doing she said se was collecting nuts (acorns) for the squirrels and that if we saw a squirrel we should let her know.

Red Squirrels
There are quite a few red squirrels at Skansen - and if you're lucky you can see one fairly close.

Early in the summer we had visited Skansen and a squirrel approached within 5 metres of platform near the bear enclosure. Alice managed to go forward and tempt it to her - but half-lunging to give it a hug. So, after that occasion she believes that squirrels like her.

After a few minutes walking we saw a squirrel near the path ahead. Alice headed forward with her acorns and crounched down calmly and held them out. We kept our distance to see what would happen.

Feeding Time
We were surprised to see it come forward, take an acorn from her palm and start eating there in front of her. Maybe it was the same one that had been half hugged by Alice earlier in the summer - and so had some sort of bond with her.

We watched this spectical for about five minutes (myself trying to take a few pictures) before Alice got impatient and went for the hug/stroke. This got the little fella skittish - gave Alice a little scratch and off it went.

Exercise Time
But Alice still had a couple of acorns... So the little fella was coaxed out again.

By this time the squirrel was a bit more jumpy - and so was Alice. So, whilst Alice got half a stroke of the squirrel, in its jumpy state it was Emily who got the real close-up!