On Mon, 8 Sep 1997, John Shelton - ext. 4051 wrote:

> Is it possible that the California Jay will replace the Steller's Jay
> simply through natural selection?

I doubt if California Jays will ever displace Steller's Jays from the
coniferous forest environments of western Washington. It seems to me
that California Jays do well in more open environments, urban/suburban
and oak woodland (???).

> Perhaps you can tell me the range of the Eastern Grey Squirrel?
> Is it feasible that it arrived here naturally rather than being
> introduced by humans?

The Gap Analysis assessment of mammal ranges is the state-of-the-art
right now and I don't have a copy of the Eastern Gray Squirrel range
map. Washington Fish and Wildlife has a pamphlet on the Western Gray
Squirrel and other squirrels of Washington which shows a fairly restricted
range for Eastern Gray Squirrels, southern Puget Sound lowlands and Vancouver,
Washington east through the Columbia River gorge. Spokane and the Tri-Cities
are also shown as small, isolated populations. I know this is incomplete.
I have seen this squirrel in Walla Walla and Deb Beutler mentioned Pullman
in a post last week. I suspect they are in other cities as well. They
tend to be in urban and suburban surroundings though, apparently not
very well equipped for life in the natural habitats of Washington.

Dalquest says they were introduced to Woodland Park in 1925 (7 pairs from
Minneapolis Minn.). He remarked that they had not spread much by the time
of his writing (1948). There have apparently other translocations to
the various scattered cities where they now occur. It's pretty obvious
they were brought here by humans. Their native range is east of the
Rocky Mountains and there is no evidence of natural range expansion. It's
more a matter or populations springing up here and there as if transported
and released by people (or dropped by passing alien spacecraft).

Kelly McAllister