Squirrels and Power

[Laurence Doering]

In article <1991Aug8.2...@ms.uky.edu> fe...@ms.uky.edu (Jeff Davis) writes:
>Not only is this not a legend, it is rather common. One squirrel hit the
>transformer outside our home and the resulting arc created a flash
>brighter than a 1000 suns. The utility man who came out to fix
>the power spent his first 2 minutes on the job looking for the remains.
>Happens all the time. Not to the same squirrel though.

Yep. This is no legend. I've encountered irrefutable proof that thrill-
seeking animals cause power outages. The August issue of "Smithsonian"
magazine, the official publication of the Smithsonian Institution, has
an article about the decline of the Guam rail, a flightless bird that is
rapidly approaching extinction because of predation by the brown tree snake
(Boiga irregularis). Apparently the snakes were inadvertently imported to
Guam during the Second World War, and have spread all over the island.
Anyway, on p. 113, we find the following passage:

"The burgeoning numbers of snakes also correlated with a pattern of
increasingly frequent power outages across Guam - the highly arboreal
reptiles have the habit of climbing onto wires and into transformers,
thus causing short circuits as they themselves are fried. There have been
as many as 100 snake-related outages a year - some throwing the entire
island and the U.S. air base there into darkness."

Page 114 has a somewhat gruesome photo with the caption "When snake attacked
bird inside a transformer, both were electrocuted." The photo shows a
charred bird with its head locked in the jaws of a singed brown tree snake.

Larry "FAQ bait" Doering

[Phil Gustafson]

Gilbert Shelton, writer of "The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers" had an idea
some time ago using squirrels as a power source rather than a power drain.

Just gear a squirrel-cage wheel to the driveshaft of your car, and drip in
a mixture of sugar and amphetamine...

Phil "Don't try this with real rodents" Gustafson

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[Terry Chan]

In article <1991Aug10....@engin.umich.edu> ldoe...@caen.engin.umich.edu
(Laurence Doering) writes:

[Origin of snakes in Guam wiping out the Guam rail deleted.]

+"The burgeoning numbers of snakes also correlated with a pattern of
+increasingly frequent power outages across Guam - the highly arboreal
+reptiles have the habit of climbing onto wires and into transformers,
+thus causing short circuits as they themselves are fried. There have been
+as many as 100 snake-related outages a year - some throwing the entire
+island and the U.S. air base there into darkness."
+
+Page 114 has a somewhat gruesome photo with the caption "When snake attacked
+bird inside a transformer, both were electrocuted." The photo shows a
+charred bird with its head locked in the jaws of a singed brown tree snake.
+
+Larry "FAQ bait" Doering

Actually, I heard it on good authority that it was actually a bizarre
murder-suicide pact between the snake and the bird because their love
could never be accepted in the avian and reptilian world. Cultural
differences can be such a tragedy.

Terry "FAQ chumming" Chan

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