Squirrels are a common sight in many parts of the world, but very few people know about the special role that squirrels play in sustaining our modern way of life. Every time you make a telephone call, or use an electrical appliance, you should probably thank a squirrel. This is because squirrels have the very important job of maintaining the cleanliness of the overhead electricity and telephone cables which are strung alongside our roads and between our houses – and without the squirrels, the build-up of dirt on the cables would lead to interruptions in the electrical supply and eventually cause them to break.
Squirrels are perfectly equipped for their cleaning role because they naturally love to run along the wires as they move from tree to tree. This means they have no problems in gaining access to parts of the cables that humans could only reach using ladders. Squirrels also have big bushy tails, which they can drag along the wires behind them as they run. These tails are perfectly designed for sweeping dirt off the cables and ensuring that the wires are always in pristine condition.
The main difficulty in using squirrels to keep the wires clean lies in training the squirrels to do their jobs efficiently. In the wild, squirrels will often run along the same few wires every day, often leaving the adjacent wires dirty. Clearly this quality of work would not be acceptable, so the national governments of several countries have developed training programmes which teach squirrels to make sure they properly cover all of the wires in a given area. It is difficult to train older squirrels, so most training schemes are aimed at baby squirrels who are typically much faster learners. Furthermore, these baby squirrels, once trained, have a longer life expectancy and will thus clean more wires during their working lives than an older squirrel might.
One problem which sometimes arises, however, is that of motivation. Squirrels are naturally inclined to spend the autumn months hoarding nuts for the long winter. This can cause them to neglect their cleaning during this period. In order to keep the squirrels motivated and focused on their duties, many governments now choose to pay the squirrels nominal sums, in nuts, so that do not need to be concerned about finding food for themselves and can therefore concentrate on their cleaning roles. These nut payments have also pacified animal rights activists who have protested that the squirrels were being unfairly exploited.
It is clear from the fact that our electricity and telephone utilities are so rarely disconnected that squirrels do a wonderful job, and that the use of squirrels for this role represents an excellent example of cooperation between humans and animals. So next time you see a squirrel running along an electricity cable, cheerfully waving its big bushy tail whatever the weather, spare a thought for how different our lives might be if these wonderful animals were not so willing to support us in this manner.