Listen and subscribe to our podcast: Via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher
Gray squirrels are so plentiful in cities today that it is difficult to imagine urban life without them. But their introduction to Minneapolis parks in the early 1900s was carefully orchestrated by park superintendent Theodore Wirth.
Reporter Susan Du joins host Eric Roper on the Curious Minnesota podcast to discuss how Wirth supplanted red squirrels with gray ones — and the pitfalls of attempting to control nature.
Further reading:
Did a famed parks leader import gray squirrels to Minneapolis — and have the red ones killed? (January 2023 Curious Minnesota story)
More from Star Tribune
More from Star Tribune
More from Star Tribune
More from Star Tribune
More from Star Tribune
More from Star Tribune
More from Star Tribune
More From Star Tribune
More From Local
How Minnesota House Republicans ended the DFL's state government trifecta
Republicans across the country benefited from favorable tailwinds as President-elect Donald Trump resoundingly defeated Democrat Kamala Harris. But that wasn't the whole story in Minnesota.
Local
Project 2025 platform proposal aims to allow mining in Boundary Waters watershed
The proposal suggests removing the 20-year protection on the Superior National Forest that President Joe Biden's administration had ordered in 2023.
Ann Johnson Stewart wins special election, giving DFL control of Minnesota Senate
Western Twin Cities suburban candidates Johnson Stewart and Republican Kathleen Fowke were the only Senate candidates on the ballot.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar defeats GOP challenger Royce White
Klobuchar won her fourth six-year term in the U.S. Senate.
Gov. Tim Walz will return to Minnesota after Trump victory blocks him from becoming vice president
Walz's attempt to join Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale as the only Minnesotans to ascend to the vice presidency was unsuccessful.
