Oldenburg declined to specify where the javelina was. It isn’t supposed to be able to survive a cold winter, but this one did. It turned out to be a javelina, native to the American Southwest. A North Idaho farmer recently phoned state officials about an odd-looking piglike animal nearby. If one got loose, she said, it never would survive an Idaho winter.īut Oldenburg is skeptical. “(But) you go to the park and shoot the squirrels, and you’re protecting native wildlife.”įoti argues that the sugar gliders, native to Australia, die at temperatures below 60 degrees. “Everyone says, ‘Oh, go to the park and feed the squirrels,”’ Oldenburg said. In Idaho, fox squirrels also take over native bird nests, forcing out songbirds and protected species. They take over the nests of native birds. Thoughout the Inland Northwest, voracious starlings - introduced from England - feast at feedlots and granaries. In Colorado, exotic sheep are devouring vegetation that should be feeding native mountain sheep. In Australia, transplanted jack rabbits are gobbling crops. He has plenty of examples of once-cute pets that have turned into nightmares. “If it exists somewhere, somebody somewhere is going to exploit it for the pet business,” he said. Oldenburg reviews applications to own wallabies, lions, reindeer, mountain lions, water buffalo, wild boars, tigers, even alligators. “It’s a very difficult situation,” he said. “We already have too many exotic animals destroying birds. “I’m the bad guy, but I’m trying to protect the state of Idaho,” he said. Oldenburg fears the tiny creatures would get loose, multiply, climb into bird nests and eat the eggs.
“As far as I’m concerned, because of their food habits, I don’t want them,” he said. He concluded that the animals are a threat to Idaho’s wildlife and told Foti to get rid of hers. Oldenburg checked into the matter, reading up on sugar gliders. She talked to Lloyd Oldenburg, Idaho’s gatekeeper for exotic pets. “They said it’s not a problem,” she said.įoti planned to breed the sugar gliders and sell the offspring for $300 to $500 a piece.Įverything went well until two weeks ago, when rumors of a sugar glider ban caused Foti to phone Fish and Game again. She said she first checked with Fish and Game officials in Coeur d’Alene and Boise. “I did everything I was supposed to do, and they’re burning me,” the owner of Critters ‘n’ Crafts pet shop said of state officials.įoti said she bought six of the creatures from a Coeur d’Alene woman five months ago. She now is the loving owner of $2,100 worth of illegal squirrels. The decision leaves Dalton Gardens pet shop owner Cyndi Foti frowning. That’s the verdict of Idaho’s Department of Fish and Game, which has ruled the animals illegal to own. It looks harmless enough - sort of a cross between a mouse and a bat - but the “sugar glider” flying squirrel is a menace to Idaho.
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