Eating Squirrels

FOOD EMERGENCY

TODAY'S "Coping with government induced disaster" memo SHTF Blog has a really good piece up on building a squirrel gun for SHTF scenarios. I don’t want to detract from it because it’s solid and you should read the whole thing, but I do want to offer a note of caution. (I’m certain that the author is aware of everything I’m about to say. Again, I’m not detracting.) I’m a longtime squirrel hunter, and like everyone else, I see them everywhere here in the city and have thought on more than one occasion that if the SHTF I could bag a few for the family. But let’s not be under any illusions: the squirrel population is going to drop to zero really fast when the food runs out. Anyone who’s planning to eat for more than a week on squirrel will go hungry. They just aren’t as plentiful and calorie-rich as you think they are. Assuming that you can get a pound of game meat from an average squirrel, which is optimistic, you’re looking at about 540 calories per squirrel. That may sound like a lot, but it isn’t. If you’re planning to use squirrel for, say, only a quarter the calories of a 2,000-calorie per day diet, then you have to bag one per day per family member. There are about five or six squirrels per acre in urban areas (about two per acre in rural areas), so with four family members to feed and a 100% success rate in killing every squirrel you see, you’re clearing out around three acres every four days in the city. And you’re not the only one trying to eat them! How long is the squirrel population really going to last in your town?  (continued) "Planning to Eat Squirrel when TSHTF? "  That would be me.  Every time a squirrel has a heart attack in our yard I say to MoSup that maybe we ought be encouraging them so's they can feed us when the time comes.  The real reason though, as I've  previously stated,  that I have declared war on squirrels is economic.  Evidently the people who make automobile fuel lines found it cheaper to use a vegetable based, rather than oil material to make their product.  Sold, no doubt, as "saving the environment." Net result, squirrels eat it.  Here's a copy of my most recent—fourth in 6 years—bill for replacing a fuel line.  That bill doesn't not include the cost of road service when I run out of gas on the Bay Bridge! Remember, if squirrels did not have furry tails they'd be indistinguishable from rats.