saxonaxe
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I'm reading a book written by a Cambridge academic who writes of his wanderings in the wilder places of the UK. Usually he is alone on his travels, but occasionally he is in company with a Naturalist who is a friend, and by coincidence, a founding member of Green Peace.
The author attempted to telephone his friend on a number of occasions without success until finally he made contact..
" Squirrels !!! Squirrels had been the problem he said. His phone line had first gone crackly then dead, so he called in the Engineers who found that Squirrels had ben nibbling the 'phone line. The Squirrels are highly intelligent and agile enough to 'Tight Rope' walk the 'phone wires. They are also poor conductors of electricity and had learned that by biting through the insulation to the bare wire and short circuiting the 50 volts that run in the wires into their own bodies, they could warm themselves up in the bitterly cold weather which was then prevalent in East Anglia"
Obviously the story is slightly dated by the overhead 'phone wires rather than the fibre optic lines now laid, but there are many places (including here) where overhead wires still connect rural properties.
I have never heard of this explanation before. I know they do damage to wires, like the Rodents they are, but using 'phone wires as electric blankets gets them first prize for craftiness in my book.
The author attempted to telephone his friend on a number of occasions without success until finally he made contact..
" Squirrels !!! Squirrels had been the problem he said. His phone line had first gone crackly then dead, so he called in the Engineers who found that Squirrels had ben nibbling the 'phone line. The Squirrels are highly intelligent and agile enough to 'Tight Rope' walk the 'phone wires. They are also poor conductors of electricity and had learned that by biting through the insulation to the bare wire and short circuiting the 50 volts that run in the wires into their own bodies, they could warm themselves up in the bitterly cold weather which was then prevalent in East Anglia"
Obviously the story is slightly dated by the overhead 'phone wires rather than the fibre optic lines now laid, but there are many places (including here) where overhead wires still connect rural properties.
I have never heard of this explanation before. I know they do damage to wires, like the Rodents they are, but using 'phone wires as electric blankets gets them first prize for craftiness in my book.
