Lord of the squirrels: Squirrel Girl’s senior year

Senior year check-in with Mary Krupa: what she’s up to, where she’s off to next and her future with the squirrels

Mary Krupa, known around campus as “Squirrel Girl” is Penn State’s very own celebrity. Her claim to fame was back in 2012 during her freshman year when she shocked and amazed the typical passerby with her affinity for squirrel wrangling. And now she is chugging along through her final year at Penn State.

The Tab sat down with Mary to catch up with the girl who stole our hearts, but more importantly, the hearts of the Penn State squirrels. During our interview, we even heard a tour guide talking about the squirrels…and Mary.

Krupa is now a senior English major, minoring in Wildlife Studies and was willing to take us across the Old Main lawn to give me the low down on all things nutty and squirrel.

What was your first interaction with a squirrel like?

My first day on campus it was the Summer Leap program and I found this jar of peanut butter on the ground, just randomly. I don’t know why there was a jar of peanut butter on the ground, someone must have dropped it from their groceries. I started putting it on a stick and offering it to the squirrels to see what would happen and they were really friendly. And then one day I saw some kids having a picnic and the squirrels were coming right up and I realized you could get really close to these squirrels while they are eating and then I decided to see if I maybe tried to touch one, if he would let me do that and he did.

Then I remembered I had some little doll hats back at my house in my box of craft supplies and I thought maybe I should bring one of these in and see if this squirrel would let me put a hat on him, that would be fun to do. I tried that and took a picture, and that’s kinda how it started.

Do all the squirrels let you approach them?

All the squirrels have different personalities, only a few will let me touch them.

Can you tell which squirrels are going to be more receptive?

Yeah, you can tell. I started learning their body language, it’s pretty easy. I mean if they don’t want to be around you, they’ll just run away. Sometimes they will let you get close to them, but they don’t want to be touched. If they fold their tail over their back, that means that they are feeling a little bit nervous and you know that it is time to back off. Their tail is really how they communicate with each other from long distances and stuff. They do make noise, these little chattering and barking noises, but they also wave their tails around, like if there is a predator to warn the other squirrels.

Has a squirrel who was comfortable around you ever brought their babies to show to you?

Not really, I have had one come to me while she was raising her babies. The first time one of my favorite squirrels was raising her babies it was missing this huge patch of fur from her back. And I was like, “What’s wrong with you, do you have mange or something or fleas or what?” And here I found out that the mother squirrel will pull the fur out of her back to line the nest for her babies.

Where do the squirrels go in the winter?

In the winter time they go and find a hollow tree and just go in there…and a bunch of squirrels are in a tree. I don’t know if they like it so much sometimes if you walk by a tree on campus you can hear them chattering like, “You stepped on my tail!” That sort of thing.

Did Vine star Jerome Jarre really contact you to get your permission to make vines with squirrels?

Oh yeah! I might still have his message on my phone. I don’t really remember exactly what he said but…Tosh.O wanted to fly my out to L.A. to do a segment this summer but I don’t really like that show, so I said no. It’s too dirty for me.

Do you like when people approach you when you are out with the squirrels?

Yeah! My first squirrel, Sneezy, was so friendly that as long as I was there, she would let other strangers just come up and pet her and feel her and she was such an educational squirrel. She would just sit there and kids would take selfies with her and she was just the sweetest little thing.

How long do squirrels live for?

It depends… like most wild animals, they are sometimes lucky to make it past age one or two, but they can live for up to 10 years.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen a squirrel eat?

A hot wing. One time I saw this squirrel with a hot wing and he was defending it for his life…if any other squirrel even looked at that hot wing, he was growling and stomping his feet.

Do the squirrels ever fall out of the trees?

Rarely, but even if they do they can use their tail as a parachute and it kind of slows them down and right before they hit the ground they will flip their tail underneath them to kind of cushion themselves. They can fall from 40-50 feet and totally be fine.

So if you’re not doing this, what’s your favorite thing to do?

In my free time I do like playing video games- right now I’m into Pokémon. It’s kind of similar to animals.

Do you eat downtown a lot?

I’m from here so my family generally doesn’t want to go anywhere near this area of town unless they have to because it is so crowded and busy.

So…Sheetz or Wawa?

Well there really isn’t a Wawa around here so…

Where are the friendliest squirrels found?

Generally right next to Old Main and the further away you get from Old Main the less friendly the squirrels are.

How do you feel about chipmunks?

Chipmunks are also squirrels…even things like groundhogs, they are just ground squirrels.

How did you learn all of this?

I’m just really interested in animals and anything I’m interested in I tend to research the crap out of.

What are you going to do when you graduate?

I don’t know, probably some sort of writing job, preferably something that involves animals. I know in New York City there are a few conservation and research groups.

Maybe you could recruit some Central Park squirrels?

I don’t know, my friend said that the Central Park squirrels aren’t as friendly as Penn State squirrels. Sometimes, they will even pee on people.

Will you come back and visit them?

Um…probably! If they can avoid hawks, they can live for like ten years.

Did you ever think coming in your Freshman year that this is what you would be known for?

Hahahaha no!

Do squirrels make a good pet?

Squirrels are a terrible pet. They wouldn’t want to be there and you probably wouldn’t want them there after a while. It would destroy everything and just wouldn’t be very happy. I do every now and then get messages on my Facebook about people finding a baby squirrel and what they should do and I always recommend they take it to a wildlife rehabilitator, we have a really good one here called Centre Wildlife Care, and they are licensed to take care of the squirrels until they can be released into the wild. A lot of the information about raising baby squirrels is out dated or inaccurate and sometimes people try to help the squirrels but they end up killing it and doing more harm than good. So it’s just best to take it to someone who knows what they are doing.

Does your whole family really like animals?

No, I’m the animal one, everyone else is kind of like, “Do we have to talk about animals all the time?”

What is your favorite Disney movie?

I don’t know… Snow White is kind of nice… but it’s really old and outdated, but I like how they draw animals in those Disney movies, they make them really, really cute.

What’s your favorite class you’ve ever taken at Penn State?

I took an Adventure Literature class, it was just for a General Arts credit, but it was all about Cape Cod and it was just really cool.

Do you think that the squirrels are particularly spoiled here?

Oh yeah. These squirrels are spoiled rotten.

So you’d like to move to New York after you graduate and get a writing job?

I don’t know…I’ve lived here my whole life so I can’t really imagine not living here. I imagine the game commission around here would need somebody.

What’s your dream job?

My dream job would be to work for a zoo. A good zoo, one accredited by the AZA (Associations of Zoos and Aquariums).

What’s something that you are really passionate about?

In a lot of states the criteria for owning exotic animals is really, really low, you just have to apply for a permit that they will pretty much give anybody. What happens is people start owning these animals and they don’t know what they are doing, they don’t know how to take care of them, and they end up with these really crappy zoos where animals are kept in really bad conditions and it’s basically just a collection of lions and tigers in someone’s back yard and they just call it a zoo… and then people see that and think that all zoos are bad, but that’s not necessarily the case.

That’s a big issue and it’s not really regulated at all. There needs to be more regulations and just more education in general. Another issue is anyone can call themselves a “Wildlife Sanctuary.” So a lot a people go to places thinking that they are helping the animals, playing with them when they are babies, but when they grow up, they are sold off a lot of the time, and no one keeps track of where they go or end up.

What do you think is a good way to get the population educated?

Just getting the word out and that is the stuff I’m good at. Like making informational campaigns, writing petitions, that sort of thing.

What’s your favorite animal?

One of my favorite animals is the tiger.

Are you glad about how big this got?

Yeah, especially when I got here, it was 2012 and Penn State didn’t have a very good…yeah. So I just decided to start this thing (the Facebook page) and thought maybe it would cheer some people up, get their mind off of stuff, give Penn State a good name and say, “This isn’t the only thing happening at Penn State, we also have cute little squirrels.”

Is there a Squirrel club?

Yeah, my friend started it actually. She’s into squirrels too, they had like 100 sign ups but I think that there is only a couple of people that go regularly and on the weekends they just go out and feed the squirrels, healthy stuff, like nuts and apples. I often wonder what happens to them when they eat crap like hot wings, like do they die of heart disease or something?

Do you mind being called “Squirrel Girl?”

There is actually a Marvel comic’s character called “Squirrel Girl.” She was actually made in the 60’s when comic books were trying out all kinds of really goofy stuff, she’s kind of like a nonsense character, but she’s a college student and has mutant squirrel powers…so she has the reflexes of a squirrel but her primary power is that she can communicate with squirrels and just cause the squirrels to like defeat the bad guys and she’s officially the most powerful being in the Marvel’s comic universe.

Make sure to check out Sneezy’s Facebook page.

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