Where are the Chipmunks?

[amberambler]

We are regular annual visitors to Fuerte and a couple of years ago we were driving in the mountains and pulled into a carpark where there were lots of chipmunks and some bloomin' big black birds.
We tried to find it again last year, but failed.
Can you tell me where this particular car park is?
Thanks.
Dan

[duncolm]

[map]?=28.37933083637567,%20-14.094836711883545=16=chipmunks=roadmap[/map]

[isleswing]

That's a great viewpoint with easy parking.
We actually prefer to stop about 5-600 metres south of there. Just round a corner is a proper pull-in (with broken white centre-line to allow you to cross). On Duncolm's map, follow the road to the bottom of the map and it's the next corner.
Far less people, but plenty of (hungrier) squirrels - or fat-tail rats, according to your point of view. A handfull of seeds, berries, or something similar, picked up earlier will go down very well.

[Magoo]

Is this the place?

[amberambler]

Thanks Isleswing and Duncolm. We shall have a look in February, probably on our changeover trip from Costa Calma to El Cotillo.

Magoo, I'm not sure that is the one that we have been to. Where is that one?

[Magoo]

I believe it is the one on the map. It was one of the larger viewpoints as there was a guy with a refreshment van. It was the "Don't feed the ground squirrels" sign I remember!

[notdeadfred]

Have a look at my album in the Media section of the forum - these pictures were taken at the spot you describe, exactly where Duncolm has shown on the map.
Strictly speaking they are Barberry Ground Squirrels, not chipmunks. There weren't so many on our visit in May last year we noticed. 

[IsThisForumStillGoingWow]

i take my grandson to feed them all the time and they LOVE cucumber and chopped up tomatoes

[waggy]

You'll see the bloody things everywhere! I've seen them along the rocky seafronts in Caleta, El Cotillo, Gran Tarajal and Corralejo, Morro Jable and other places inland.
They are an inadvisedly-introduced, invasive, alien critter in the Canaries. they are yet one more unnecessary competitive pressure on the already disappearing native species that are reliant on ground covering plants. They need to be trapped and eradicated, not fattened-up to improve their already overly-fecund breeding potential.
Barberry - what's that? It should be 'Barbary', after that part of the N African coast where they are a native species and truly belong.

[Ivemovedon]

Bit on the harsh side wag. They don't do much harm and because of building work etc are on the decline anyway. Always liked to see them living round my place.Lets face it apart from rabbits  the island isn't innundated with wildlife.

[Spike On Q]

The car park is called the Mirador de Fenduca or Granadillos. The black birds are ravens and are very intelligent. One pair knew our car and used to fly along side us until we reached the car park and my wife got out and fed them by hand

Look south across the oldest part of The Canary Islands toward Jandia. Look south west and on a clear day you will see Gran Canaria

You overlook, to the north, the valley of the Rio Palma, with Vega del Rio Palma in the foreground and Betancuria further along the valley. The old dam down to the left was built in the 1930's and supplied water to the whole of the Pajara area for a number if years. It is now silted up. The gorge behind it reaches down to Buen Paso [being used to film Exodus at present] and down to the Atlantic ocean at Ajuy. There are lots of historic stories about this area as Fuerteventura was the first island to be colonised by European invaders [Jean de Betancor] [Betancuria]. There is a large pilgrimage to the church in Vega every September

[PHo]

Nice to see a well-informed post Spike, after all the dross we have been subjected to recently

[Can the Man]

Hey PHo please don't associate some of the crapp that we have been subjected to on General Chat as dross, we at Dross have our own section and post dross on it not elsewhere.

Thanks for your understanding.

[Spike On Q]

Careful - they are threatening to shoot us now!

[waggy]

Bit on the harsh side wag. They don't do much harm and because of building work etc are on the decline anyway. Always liked to see them living round my place.Lets face it apart from rabbits  the island isn't innundated with wildlife.

Sorry if you find it harsh, Stedge, but one has to be realistic: goats, rabbits, hedgehogs, cats, Barbary squirrels, rats and other feral invasive alien introductions have to be kept down or eradicated whether we might like to see them around the place or not. Indigenous Canarian wildlife, although not as cuddly and Disneyesque as some who have no place for Nature would like, is too valuable to lose.

[notdeadfred]

Waggy, Barbary is what I meant to put, don't know where BarBerry came from! Must the dementia advancing another notch, or too much of the old juniper berry perhaps!.

And I have to agree with you about them taking over. What's their population now, nearly 1.5m now isn't it? From zero, thanks to one person introducing them as pets all those years ago.

But they are quite cute, people love to see them, and if their numbers could be properly controlled somehow maybe they could become more tolerated and less of a threat to native wildlife.

[Ivemovedon]

after you knock that lot off the list wag your only left with insects. Also would have thought any hawks or buzzards would find them a tasty meal

[Deso]

Waggy, Barbary is what I meant to put, don't know where BarBerry came from! Must the dementia advancing another notch, or too much of the old juniper berry perhaps!.

And I have to agree with you about them taking over. What's their population now, nearly 1.5m now isn't it? From zero, thanks to one person introducing them as pets all those years ago.

But they are quite cute, people love to see them, and if their numbers could be properly controlled somehow maybe they could become more tolerated and less of a threat to native wildlife.

This is beginning to look like another immigration topic.   

[waggy]

I know what you mean, notdeadfred: why can I remember antidisestablishmentarianism and not bring to mind a simple word like fuchsia?
The problem is, Stedge, they all compete with or predate the indigenous lizards at different stages of their life cycles.

[Magoo]

They need to be trapped and eradicated, not fattened-up to improve their already overly-fecund breeding potential.

I feel the same way about the "Burberry squirrels"  we have to put up with in the UK.