Water?
I’m thinking of squirrels specifically, but it might apply to others as well. I can understand that when it rains there might be puddles around, but sometimes it does not rain for lengthy periods of time. And there doesn’t seem to be any other obvious sources of water around. If they need to drink anywhere near as often as people I would think they would die of thirst.
We get a lot of wildlife at out backyard pond/waterfall. Lots of folks are into pond gardening, so that is one source.
Our pond is fenced, so we are limited to animals that can either climb the fence, or slip through the boards. We get a lot of squirrels, drives our dogs nuts. Squirrels also drink out of birdbaths. I have a heated birdbath, that’s another source of water year-round.
Skinny mochacino.
Some sciurids (like ground squirrels) use “metabolic water,” that is, water obtained from what they eat. A number of animals do this, and if they’re really really good at it, they can obtain water out of apparently dry material, like seeds.
Are you sure of this? I once read of such a thing, but as a unique characteristic of some species of desert mouse, which came out only at night and hardly urinated - I am skeptical if this would apply to common squirrels. Plus, the impetus for this thread is that just yesterday I saw a squirrel taking a drink out of some container that my kids left outside and got filled with rainwater. So apparently it needed to drink.
You’re right, the ones that survive on metabolic water alone (kangaroo rat) are highly specialized. Some, like the Antelope ground squirrel and the thirteen-lined ground squirrel get their water both “directly” (from succulents) and indirectly (metabolically). These are still both fairly arid-environment species. I don’t know what (if any) capacity something like, say gray squirrels, would have to get water metabolically. But, as Boscibo pointed out (and as you saw), we humans like to surround ourselves with plenty of water (maybe our MW capabilities are worth squat :)). This summer I flew over Chicago and I was stunned at how many homes had pools and ponds in their backyards (I work with a bunch of mosquito biologists, and we tend to look for things like this ;)).
Beer, mainly. Well, that’s the Urban Animals, a group of nighttime skaters in Houston.
Interesting info about the metabolic water.
What do urban animals drink?
Night Train.
[sub] or, Mother Goose’s Sparkling Wine[/sub]
Zima.
Darn… Ringo beat me to it.