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Little grey feckers....

Jurassic Park, aka Isle of Wight?  Lots of the little blighters there.  Greys found to have sneaked onto the ferries are unceremoniously thrown over the side into the Solent when the RSPCA are not looking...

And of course the difference between pink and purple is apparently your grip.....?

Rats with bushy tails

Quote from: Keraunos on Today at 12:36:33 PMWhy only Scandinavian squirrel hunters?  Surely other peoples hunted squirrels as well?

True but the report singled out Scandinavia as a major source of squirrel fur in the period.  So a good place to start, perhaps?

Quote from: Erpingham on Today at 11:43:21 AMThe main lessons appear to be don't use squirrel fur in clothes and don't keep them as pets. Given what appear to be low transmission rates in modern populations, how much of a risk were medieval squirrels to public health, one wonders?  Do we have records of high levels of leprosy among Scandinavian squirrel hunters, who you would expect to have high exposure levels?

Phew!  No pet squirrel and no squirrel fur clothing.  Why only Scandinavian squirrel hunters?  Surely other peoples hunted squirrels as well?

The main lessons appear to be don't use squirrel fur in clothes and don't keep them as pets. Given what appear to be low transmission rates in modern populations, how much of a risk were medieval squirrels to public health, one wonders?  Do we have records of high levels of leprosy among Scandinavian squirrel hunters, who you would expect to have high exposure levels?

Quote from: Erpingham on Today at 10:43:24 AM

Quote from: Jon Freitag on Today at 12:34:02 AMSeems I am in dire need of remedial re-education in British colloquialisms and idioms.

Not at all.  But I believe that understanding cricket is something that many Americans say they struggle with, so I thought I'd help out 

Apparently cricket used to be relatively popular in the US before the Civil War. Apparently during the civil war, it was easier for soldiers to improvise a pitch for rounders, evolving into Baseball, than it was to find somewhere suitable for cricket.

Quote from: Jon Freitag on Today at 12:34:02 AMSeems I am in dire need of remedial re-education in British colloquialisms and idioms.

Not at all.  But I believe that understanding cricket is something that many Americans say they struggle with, so I thought I'd help out 

Of course, the concept of squirrels being a disease vector is not so strange once one realises that they are closely related to rats, notorious spreaders of bubonic plague and other complaints.

Do we think that the displacement of red squirrels by invasive grey squirrels has had the benefit of eliminating leprosy from the UK?  In which case, should we all do our bit for public health by shooting ecologists who are trying to preserve and reintroduce this pestilential breed?