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I would like to travel to an island where one can find squirrels.

What are some of the possible locations for me to travel to?

Requirements: I need to be able to visit the island on a South African passport. If I can get there on a visa then its fine. Smallest island that fits this requirement.

Finding squirrels should be possible but can be on any range from easy to find to almost impossible. In other words, squirrel should exist on the island as a minimum requirement.

Sorry for the strange travel question.

Update

Added the requirement for the smallest island to make this question more specific as the question was put on hold.

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    Squirrels are common at least in most of Europe and North America, unless you put in some restrictions this may become a huge list answer. London, UK, is known for many grey squirrels which are easy to see in its parks. (But does it meet your requests for island?)
    – Willeke ♦
    Jan 13, 2019 at 11:00
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    I'm curious as to why you have this requirement. Do you want to see Squirrels? If so wouldn't ones where they are easier to find be preferable? Also why must it be on an island?
    – Martin Smith
    Jan 13, 2019 at 12:50
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    Sorry but adding an arbitrary criterion just to get your question re-opened really doesn't make this look like a genuine question. OK, you want to see squirrels. Great. Why does it have to be on an island? Why does it have to be on a small island? This is a puzzle, at best, not a question about ravel.
    – David Richerby
    Jan 13, 2019 at 20:58
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    @NeanDerThal OK, so why might a person not be able to make two trips easily? If they're short of money, shouldn't they be specifying that it needs to be close to them? If they're short of time, shoudln't it be somewhere that's easy to get to from where they are? Why did "smallest" only become important after the question was closed?
    – David Richerby
    Jan 13, 2019 at 21:28
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    @NeanDerThal "someone wants to go an island and also wants to see squirrels" can't be the case here, since OP specifically states it's fine even if the squirrels are "almost impossible" to find. So it's someone who wants to be on an island where more than one squirrel is known to be present but isn't interested in actually seeing it... this almost makes me long for the good old days of the endless "Can I take [this week's hilarious random item] on a flight?" questions.
    – Pont
    Jan 14, 2019 at 15:13

4 Answers 4

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Madagascar or Mauritius, both are islands and both have Indian Palm Squirrels. They aren't that far from South Africa too.

This species of squirrels is not native to neither Madagascar or Mauritius, they were introduced in the 19th century.

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    Madagascar is pretty big
    – user59310
    Jan 14, 2019 at 13:33
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    @KeithLoughnane When this answer was posted, the question didn't specify that the island had to be "the smallest".
    – David Richerby
    Jan 14, 2019 at 16:58
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If you come to the UK, don't bother with grey squirrels, which are classified as an invasive animal pest species (introduced from the USA) and have almost wiped out the native European red squirrels. You can find grey squirrels pretty much anywhere in the UK in urban areas where there is a park with a few trees.

Personally, I think the description of grey squirrels as "rats with fluffy tails" is quite accurate and appropriate, but since I lived in an area where I saw red squirrels almost every day when I was younger, until the greys exterminated them, I might be biased!

There are at least three small islands around the UK coastline where you can see red squirrels: Plas Newydd on Anglesey at the "northwest corner" or Wales, and Tresco in the Scilly Isles off the coast of Cornwall, and Brownsea Island in Dorset.

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    There's a population of red squirrels on the mainland at Formby, just north of Liverpool, and larger populations in mainland Scotland.
    – David Richerby
    Jan 13, 2019 at 18:16
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    Also, the Isle of Wight (see wightsquirrels.co.uk), which is a very small island at just 380 km²
    – Tom Wright
    Jan 14, 2019 at 2:16
  • @TomWright The Isle of Wight is a lot bigger than Tresco or Brownsea though!
    – Nick C
    Jan 14, 2019 at 13:34
  • I've never seen a red squirrel in the UK and I've lived here for 5-6 years. It's sad they've gone almost extinct from the mainland.
    – rath
    Jan 14, 2019 at 16:12
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    @rath There are only a few, localized populations. It's not a matter of how long you've lived in the UK but whether you've been to the right places.
    – David Richerby
    Jan 14, 2019 at 17:00
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Although may not be the answer you were seeking, but UK would qualify. It's definitely an island a set of islands, there are lots of South Africans around here - you do need a visa but they are fairly easy to obtain compared so some other countries.

And there are definitely lots and lots of squirrels here. In England now these are primarily grey squirrels, which in many places are considered pests (there's a saying about squirrels being rats with fluffy tails and good PR). They are everywhere: in forests, parks, cities - everywhere you find trees.

Further north you can still find red squirrels. These are a lot more people-shy and you may need to search a bit to find them.

Another not-frequently thought of island is Manhattan (part of New York City). Again, it's an island, you can visit with a visa and there are tons of squirrels there as well. I have seen numerous black squirrels around New York University in Washington Square Park. I even took the below (admittedly not very good) picture of a white squirrel in Central Park in Manhattan in 2006. enter image description here

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    The UK is not an island. In full, it is "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", an island and a piece of another one, plus some small islands that are not listed in the name. Great Britain, the largest of the British Isles, is indeed an island with plenty of squirrels.
    – Patricia Shanahan
    Jan 13, 2019 at 15:05
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    @PatriciaShanahan Technically, yes, you're right, though that doesn't diminish the point of the answer.
    – Aleks G
    Jan 13, 2019 at 15:19
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Basically any island in temperate Europe with trees is going to have squirrels. For instance, I used to live on Angyali Sziget (Angel Island) in the Danube south of Budapest. No infrastructure, plenty of squirrels. But Angyali Sziget is 3 kilometres long, so it's by no means the smallest squirreled island in the neighbourhood.

Perhaps you should re-think your selection criteria.

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