‘Bah-boom, bah-boom’: Acorn-ucopia of food fattens squirrels

DAMARISCOTTA, Maine (AP) — Humans aren’t the only species packing on extra pounds during the pandemic. Some squirrels are letting themselves go, too. One portly critter in Damariscotta doesn’t scamper or scoot. It lumbers and waddles after supplementing nature’s bounty by helping himself to seeds that fall to the ground from bird feeders. Wildlife biologist Shevenell Webb says there have been abundant beech nuts, hazelnuts, acorns and a bumper crop of mushrooms this summer. That may account for some of the extra pounds as squirrels fatten up for winter.