"I almost tripped over a few, and one tried to join me here at the picnic table," said Kevin Braasch, a visitor from Chicago who had just sat down near Tamarack Avenue in Carlsbad after a two-mile jog from his hotel. "They sure are friendly creatures."
A little too friendly, most people would say. The squirrel population is booming down by the beach, so much so that the animals have lost their fear of humans. They scamper right up to people, usually looking for a hand-out.
But don’t feed the animals, the rangers say.