Squirrels

[Ungatt Trunn]

Alright, when I was reading Outcast Of Redwall, on Page 14, Sunflash and Skarlath find a tree full of different type of nuts. It also said that some squirrel put them there. Now, that led me to thinking: why does it seem that general squirrels in the Redwall books show no apparent love for nuts, and that they seem more "Civilized" at there food storage habits than normal squirrels. But then, why was there a tree full of nuts said to have been put there by a squirrel if squirrels don't seem to do that in the world of Redwall? Are there more than one species of squirrels, one type smaller and more uncivilized than the common ones in the Redwall stories? To me, that's pretty unlikely. Is it just a stereotypic mistake made by BJ? Anyone else have an idea?

[TW]

I know that Brian once said that most of the squirrels in Redwall were red squirrels native to Britain (and endangered). I could be wrong, but that could mean that he views red squirrels as a "calmer" species while the grey squirrel, an invasive species in Britain from America, represents the stereotypical squirrel that people seem to enjoy making commercials out of recently . It's possible that both species exist in the world of Redwall and the grey squirrels are the hoarders. The majority are red squirrels while some of the wilder ones, the Gawtrybe comes to mind, could represent grey squirrels.

[Ungatt Trunn]

@TW: Interesting... But then why don't you see a real appearance from a "stereotype" Grey Squirrel in any of the Redwall books?

[Gonff the Mousethief]

in martin the warrior, the gawtrybe were pretty different from other squirrels but also in book 1, I tell about a small toad hoping across the road when cluny and shadow come and it describes him very small, so maybe it was a differnent
type of squirrel  a smaller one or a crazy one

[Ungatt Trunn]

@Gonff: But it didn't say that the Gawtribe were "Grey" Squirrels; the squirrels I was referring to "Small" squirrels who store nuts in tress and stuff like that. And what were you saying about a toad? 

[Gonff the Mousethief]

BJ says a small toad saw cluny and shadow walking across the road. it said he was very small so there may be very small squirrels just like the toad

[TW]

I just thought the grey squirrel thing was a good explanation for why the Gawtrybe was so different to the squirrels we usually see. Another one is that they were just uncivilized. Likewise, it's also possible that squirrels in Redwall do hoard nuts and we never se it. I do recall Brian mentioning something about the two squirrel species somewhere. I'll take a look to see if I can find it.

Since we're on the topic of the Gawtrybe, does anyone else think that the cartoon made them look like the Kindergarteners from the Recess cartoon?

[Tam and Martin]

I think that some are just more civilized or uncivilized than others. Just like humans. There are some that are super neat and tidy and then there are others that aren't that neat....like me....

[Ungatt Trunn]

This is all very intresting. So, now we see a possability of a sort-of "Lower Class" and "Upper Class" of Squirrels. Think that the same thing might apply to other species? Birds, for example?

[Tam and Martin]

That might be so. There are some birds that seem they can and can't talk. Like for example, The big birds in Doomwyte can speak but there are others like the bird that Rose talked to in Martin the Warrior for example, that seemed could not speak at all.